Summertime: Olivia Arthur in Margate
Inspired by the energy found in the unseen color images of the UK in the Magnum archive, Olivia Arthur seeks out a sense of summertime on the English coast
This summer, as part of the series A World in Color, Oliva Arthur was given carte blanche to dive into the Magnum unseen color archives of the United Kingdom, curating a selection of images from her Magnum peers, and shooting a new body of work in response.
Drawn to the energy that exudes from the images of people in these archives, Arthur decided to make a series around a sense of summer, joy, and togetherness. In stark contrast to the melancholy of her ongoing personal project around the British coastline, the series Summertime, shot with a FUJIFILM GFX100II, captures the essence of British summers in the coastal town of Margate.
Olivia Arthur: Looking through the unseen works from the colour archive, I found myself drawn not only to the images and what I was seeing, but to the photographers and the energy that went into making these photographs. When I joined Magnum in 2008, my colleagues in the London office were all men and mostly a generation older than me, there was a big gap between us. So, one of the pleasures for me in this exercise of delving into the colour archive was to get to know them and their energy in their younger selves.
Going through an archive is very different to studying the famous or iconic works of a photographer, you go on all the journeys and assignments with them, you see how they are looking at and engaging with people around them. I found myself drawn to images with energy, with a sense of joy and loved the thought of these men running around making them (there were almost no images in the unseen colour archive of Britain made by women).
At the same time as looking through these images, I have been working on a personal series around the British coastline. Much of this has been made in the winter and has a somewhat melancholy feel to it. So whilst I was looking at the archive and finding the moments of joyfulness, I realised that I wanted to marry the two and go to seek out a sense of summertime fun on the coast. And where better to look for the energy of British summertime than the coastal town of Margate with its sandy beach, tidal pool and all the trimmings of British seaside worlds along with a theme park hosting music festivals.
I went down to Margate on a warm July weekend and saw the beach and town fill up with people and crowds, many of whom were, like myself, visiting from London or other parts of Kent. People came from every different background and were there to relax and have a good time.
At Dreamland there was a reggae festival which ended with a lady who entertained her friends by becoming a ‘can angel’ in the debris on the floor of the gig.
Mixing what I found with the work from the archive I see this as a joint journey between myself and my colleagues into the world of Brits on holiday close to home, enjoying themselves, letting their hair down, making the most of our humble British summertime.
