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 seated woman amidst a garden scene. It's held in the Tate Collections and its support measures approximately 404 x 304 mm. Editor: The stark black and white gives it an almost documentary feel, and her direct gaze is quite striking. Curator: Indeed. Arnatt often explored the relationship between people and their environments, reflecting on themes of labor, class, and gendered spaces. The "Gardeners" series situates these figures within the context of domesticity and work. Editor: The texture contrast is quite compelling; the rough stone wall, the soft floral patterns, and her relaxed pose. These elements create a layered visual experience. Curator: It also speaks to the cultural expectations placed on women, especially in rural settings, and how they shape and are shaped by their surroundings. Editor: A photograph about people, their spaces, and the narratives built within seemingly ordinary lives. Curator: It’s more than just a portrait; it’s a lens through which to examine societal structures.
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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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