The Oxford Pictures 1968 – 1978 by Paddy Summerfield. First edition (2016). First impression. Large format hardback in new condition. Signed by Paddy Summerfield to title page. No markings. This book is new and unread. Please see pictures. PayPal accepted, any questions please get in touch.
About The Oxford Pictures 1968 – 1978
Firstly, between 1968 and 1978, Summerfield photographed Oxford students in the summer terms. No older than his subjects, he shared their uncertainties. He said, ‘I was young and unsure and so found a way to show this. I felt like an outsider, and lonely, that there was always something going on, parties and drinking, but elsewhere. Also, often, I sensed a loneliness in the students I photographed. We were all lonely together.’ As a result, he found his subjects beside the rivers and on sunlit college lawns. His images primarily express the insecurities and pain of youth. Therefore, his psychological approach is driven by the tension between the yearning for love, and sexual anxiety. Solitary figures represent his own isolation, an experience that many will recognise. Rituals are played out, frivolity as well as romance give way to revision and exams. Then celebrations that collapse into debauchery, and regret. The students depart and are replaced; only the stones remain.
