Dimensions: support: 404 x 304 mm
Copyright: © The estate of Keith Arnatt | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Keith Arnatt's photograph "Gardeners" presents a man in his working environment. It’s a black and white print, part of the Tate collection. Editor: I find this image quite poignant; there's a sense of quiet dignity, almost a solemnity in this everyday scene. Curator: It's interesting to consider the signs of labor present: the worn clothing, the tools scattered in the background. Arnatt seems to be elevating the working class experience. Editor: And the scarecrow figure hanging near the house! Is that a symbol of vulnerability, a guardian, or perhaps a darker omen related to the land and its yields? It feels deeply symbolic. Curator: Perhaps it's Arnatt commenting on the inherent precarity of agricultural labor, a nod to the economic realities woven into the act of gardening. Editor: It really invites consideration of how our lives are visually represented. Curator: Indeed. It's a reminder that even mundane images can carry profound meaning. Editor: A simple photograph but so much to consider.
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Gardeners 1978–9 is a large series of black and white photographs that depicts individuals standing outdoors in the gardens they tend, which vary in character from sprawling fields in the countryside to small urban front gardens. Although the gardeners’ poses, expressions and clothing differ, they are all shown full-length standing in the mid-ground of the scene and looking towards the camera. The selection of forty prints from this series in the Tate collection (Tate T13087–T13126) was made and exhibited in 1979 for Keith Arnatt’s solo exhibition at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London. A different selection of prints was exhibited in his 1989 touring solo exhibition Rubbish and Recollections (Cambridge Darkroom; Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; Ffotogallery, Cardiff). Arnatt took the photographs that make up this series during 1978 and 1979. To do so, he visited the sitters at their homes, photographing them in their own gardens. The series title, Gardeners, focuses the viewer’s attention on the gardeners rather than the gardens themselves, although the way in which Arnatt presents the individuals surrounded by the grass, foliage and sometimes concrete of their settings, with little else in view, suggests the intimate connection between the gardeners and their land. The repetitive nature of the composition and poses across each of the forty photographs also has the effect of drawing together a diverse group of people who have been photographed as a result of a shared hobby.
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