The photographers who captured rebels, rejects and outcasts on the edges of society

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Even though there’s no sign of any customers.... near Ikebukuro, Hikarimachi Ohashi, 1975, by Seiji Kurata, from the series Flash Up, 1975-1979
Even though there’s no sign of any customers.... near Ikebukuro, Hikarimachi Ohashi, 1975, by Seiji Kurata, from the series Flash Up, 1975-1979. Collection of Mark Pearson, Zen Foto Gallery
(Image credit: TBC)

Diane Arbus, the photographer of people on the peripheral, famously once said: ‘A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.’

Her words ring true at ‘Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins’, the Barbican Art Gallery’s new photography exhibition in London – a group show of some 20 contemporary artists who fascinated with life on the edges of society. Like Arbus, their position, and relationship with the people they portray, is often complicated, and sometimes problematic. Arbus was driven to the edge herself by her own work, committing suicide in 1971.

Evelyn, La Palmera, Santiago, 1983, by Paz Errázuriz, from the series La Manzana de Adán (Adam’s Apple)

Evelyn, La Palmera, Santiago, 1983, by Paz Errázuriz, from the series La Manzana de Adán (Adam’s Apple). © Paz Errázuriz. Courtesy of the artist

(Image credit: Paz Errázuriz)

The erotic frisson and illicit allure of pictures of rebels, rejects and reprobates by Larry Clark or Daido Moriyama – darkly lit, edgy, morbose – points at the perversion of peeking in, something the camera has allowed artists to do. Images they shot between the 1960s and 80s, included in the show, unearthed urban subcultures in the pre-digital age, making them visible to the masses, for better and worse.

Decades later, works like Katy Grannan’s series – inspired by Robert Frank’s The Americans – leaves the identity of her liminal subjects as ‘anonymous’ – the new kind of social outcast in the Insta-famous age.

Being cast out by society can lead to psychological and physical suffering, and representing the underrepresented often makes the personal political. Chilean photographer Paz Errázuriz shot Adam’s Apple, portraits of transgender sex workers in a brothel, in the mid 1980s, during the military dictatorship of Pinochet, and as the AIDs crisis raged worldwide – but the focus of her images is the faces.

The lives of many of the photographers here – such as Walter Pfeiffer, Dayanita Singh – were intertwined with the subcultures they shot, some of them photographing close friends, their pictures a way to preserve memories for each other. Why and how people end up living on the fringes of society is a poignant question their pictures raise.

The people and places may have changed, but the pictures remain, anonymous but symbolic. Bruce Davidson’s prolific documentation of a safe haven for transvestites in the 1950s presents a history that would have otherwise been invisible today, and is a celebration above all of how people find support in one another when the rest of the world has turned them away.

Anonymous, San Francisco, 2009, by Katy Grannan, from the series Boulevard

Anonymous, San Francisco, 2009, by Katy Grannan, from the series Boulevard. © Katy Grannan. Courtesy of the artist and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

(Image credit: Katy Grannan)

Pista de Baile del club ‘Arthur’s’ (Dance floor of the club ‘Arthur’s’), 2016, by Teresa Margolles

Pista de Baile del club ‘Arthur’s’ (Dance floor of the club ‘Arthur’s’), 2016, by Teresa Margolles. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland

(Image credit: Teresa Margolles)

Christmas card from Gloria in a black dress

[Christmas card from Gloria in a black dress], 1965, from the Casa Susanna Collection, attributed to Andrea Susan. © Art Gallery of Ontari

(Image credit: TBC)

Untitled, 1963, by Larry Clark, from the series Tulsa, 1962-1971.

Untitled, 1963, by Larry Clark, from the series Tulsa, 1962-1971. Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York and Simon Lee Gallery, London

(Image credit: Larry Clark)

Untitled, 1982, by Philippe Chancel, from the series Rebel’s Paris, 1982.

Untitled, 1982, by Philippe Chancel, from the series Rebel’s Paris, 1982. Courtesy of Melanie Rio Fluency, France

(Image credit: Philippe Chancel)

Photo of girl in garden blowing bubblegum

Tiny. Seattle, Washington, by Mary Ellen Mark, from the series Streetwise, 1983. © Mary Ellen Mark. Courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery New York

(Image credit: Mary Ellen Mark)

Japan Theater, by Daido Moriyama, from the series Japan Photo Theater

Japan Theater, by Daido Moriyama, from the series Japan Photo Theater. Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, UK, and Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation

(Image credit: Daido Moriyama)

Man with long hair standing behind a high, wire fence

Untitled XVI, Stavropol Krai, USSR, 1977, by Igor Palmin, from the series The Enchanted Wanderer, 1977. 

(Image credit: Igor Palmin)

INFORMATION

‘Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins’ is on view until 27 May. For more information, visit the Barbican Centre website

ADDRESS

Barbican Centre
Silk Street
London EC2Y 8DS

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Charlotte Jansen

Charlotte Jansen is a journalist and the author of two books on photography, Girl on Girl (2017) and Photography Now (2021). She is commissioning editor at Elephant magazine and has written on contemporary art and culture for The Guardian, the Financial Times, ELLE, the British Journal of Photography, Frieze and Artsy. Jansen is also presenter of Dior Talks podcast series, The Female Gaze.