Ray's a Laugh
Richard Billingham
Richard Billingham (born 1970) is best known for the photobook Ray’s a Laugh. Ray’s a Laugh is legendary among photobooks. The book offers a candid and uncomfortably probing document of his working class family in their grungy flat in Cradley Heath, England. His photographs aired the dirty laundry of his parents for all to see.
Ray’s a Laugh documents the life of Billingham’s alcoholic father Ray and obese, heavily tattooed mother Liz. The cramped apartment that his parents occupy with his younger brother and assorted dogs and cats in a city high-rise tenement is the claustrophobic mise-en-scene. In this book he presents a wholly unsentimental, candid, yet sometimes undeniably hilarious view of the tribulations of life in his family.
That’s basically it. Ray and Liz laugh, cry, shout, argue, drink, smoke and watch TV. Ray, his father, and his mother Liz appear at first glance as grotesque figures. With the alcoholic father drunk on his home brew, and the mother, an obese chain smoker with an apparent fascination for nicknacks and jigsaw puzzles. However, ultimately Ray and Liz shine through as troubled yet deeply human and touching personalities.
It is a portrayal of the poverty and deprivation in which Billingham grew up. Shot in diaristic snapshot mode, in garish colours with a basic technique, the prints processed at the chemist. Billingham’s imagery is raw, immediate, unpretentious, funny, touching and desperate by turns. Billingham’s work retains a degree of gentle humour and humanity.
First published in 1996 to enormous acclaim. Considered as one of the most significant photobooks of the turn of the twentieth century. In 1996, for the public, the pictures were a shock. More intimate, more personal, more oppressive than the pictures to which they were accustomed. Some saw them as a betrayal, exposing unsuspecting family members to potential humilation. Ray was a laugh indeed. But it wasn’t clear if we were meant to laugh at him or with him.
The initial editons quickly went out of print and have been hard to find since. Now there is a reprint by Mack. However this reprint is radically altered from the original. It is much thicker. The original counts 100 pages, while Mack’s clocks in at 320. This new edtion includes numerous unseen images and a different approach to sequencing.
Ray’s a Laugh
Photographer: Richard Billingham
Originally published in 1996 by Scalo
Reworked editon by Mack (expanded and resequenced) published in 2024
Embossed linen hardcover, 23,4 x 31 cm, 320 pages
Considered as one of the greatest photobooks of all time by Source Magazine.
Mentioned in The Photobook: A History. Volume 2. Edited by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger.