LANG Artist Roy Mehta

The 80s: Photographing Britain at Tate Britain

21 November 2024 - 5 May 2025

We are delighted to announce that works from Roy Mehta’s series Revival: London will be featured as part of the forthcoming exhibition at Tate Britain.

Roy Mehta’s work is a celebration of community and of the ordinary lives lived within. His images transport us back to the 80’s and 90’s, where the world was just on the cusp of radical transformation into the high-tech globally interconnected existence of today. This was an era before flatscreen TV’s, laptops and mobile phones were essential components of almost every household. Netflix, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were yet to be invented, there were only five TV channels to watch and our experience beyond our local area was, for most, fleeting.

The humanity, closeness and warmth of social relationships underpins Mehta’s candid portraits, street scenes, parties, interiors and public gatherings. His images record the wonder and truth of daily life, the importance of family, friends and community – always addressing his subjects with consideration and care. People present themselves without well-rehearsed poses and pouts - this is a pre-selfie generation after all. There is a natural relaxed straightforwardness here, depicting an honest representation of a diverse community living, working, playing and worshipping together. Mehta is not a spectator; he is a participant and his images bear witness to this.

For more information and to book tickets via the Tate website click HERE

“This autumn, Tate Britain will present The 80s: Photographing Britain, a landmark survey which will consider the decade as a pivotal moment for the medium of photography. Bringing together nearly 350 images and archive materials from the period, the exhibition will explore how photographers used the camera to respond to the seismic social, political, and economic shifts around them. Through their lenses, the show will consider how the medium became a tool for social representation, cultural celebration and artistic expression throughout this significant and highly creative period for photography.

This exhibition will be the largest to survey photography’s development in the UK in the 1980s to date. Featuring over 70 lens-based artists and collectives, it will spotlight a generation who engaged with new ideas of photographic practice, from well-known names to those whose work is increasingly being recognised” *Tate Press Release