Daniel Meadows

Meadows was born in Great Washbourne, Gloucestershire, "in the middle of nowhere on the edge of the Cotswolds", on 28 January 1952. Both of his parents had Suffolk origins; his father was a land agent for the Dumbleton Estate, in which the family lived; his mother developed multiple sclerosis when Daniel was young and this gradually became more acute. He spent his early years without television. With Peter Fraser, Brian Griffin, Charlie Meecham and Martin Parr, Meadows studied at Manchester Polytechnic. (Meadows' 1972 series June Street was a collaboration with Parr.) While a student he was particularly inspired by a lecture by Bill Jay (editor of Creative Camera and Album), and an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of work by Bill Brandt. taken in October 1974 by Daniel Meadows. One of a series of portraits (sometimes referred to as National Portraits) which Meadows made from the Free Photographic Omnibus. The man on the left has been identified as James (or Jimmy) Connor (or O'Connor). On the right is David Balderstone. This picture appears on the front cover of the book Daniel Meadows: Edited Photographs from the 70s and 80s by Val Williams.Inspired by what Bill Jay had said about Benjamin Stone's travel around Britain by horse-drawn caravan, Meadows thought of a mobile version of the Greame Street studio; the Cliff Richard film Summer Holiday suggested a solution. He succeeded and for 14 months from September 1973 travelled around England in the Free Photographic Omnibus, Meadows took this to twenty or more towns. Payne, holding his pigeon in the centre of the photograph, told Meadows that he caught and bred pigeons. Paul Cabuts writes that: The photograph, like many other photographs in the exhibition [No Such Thing as Society], offers a window on a lost world, one that is difficult to perceive without considerable culturally-specific contextualisation. Meadows' photograph is however a masterstroke in providing clues about the life and times of those recorded through his lens. The boys became the subject, although the pigeon had been the vehicle for this particular engagement. In offering up their pigeon (the photograph was taken at their request), we enter a world of friendship and pride, the social activities on a working class housing estate. . . . With its echo of Ken Loach's film Kes, the photograph was widely reproduced. It was the cover photograph of the 1975 Arts Council anthology British Image 1 and the photograph on the poster for and catalogue of the 2008 travelling Hayward exhibition No Such Thing as Society. In 1979 Meadows presented an episode of the Granada TV arts series Celebration that focussed on photographers Charlie Meecham and Chris Killip. Meadows went on to photograph the northwest of England in the 1970s, including the people around Factory Records, and in the 1980s he went on to study the residents of a middle-class London suburb (Bromley, although not specified at the time), the latter published as Nattering in Paradise. ==Career as teacher and digital storyteller==

Meadows became interested in teaching while photographing in Lancashire in the 1970s; in 1983 David Hurn invited him to help teach the Documentary Photography course at Newport College of Art and Design. His students there have included Tim Hetherington. In the 1990s, he led photojournalism workshops for the Reuters Foundation, the British Council, and other organisations in Europe and the Indian subcontinent. Meadows' interest in participatory media was greatly influenced by Ivan Illich's ideas as presented in Tools for Conviviality; From 2001 to 2006 Meadows was creative director of Capture Wales, a BBC Wales project: "[he] accomplished an innovative reworking of the Californian [CDS] model, adapting it to the 'media ecology' of UK public broadcasting". Since this time Meadows has also lectured widely about digital storytelling. ==Photographic archive==

In August 2014, Meadows' photographic archive was described as being in the process of acquisition by the Library of Birmingham: "Meadows established a relationship with a collecting institution with specialist expertise and resources", receiving much help from Pete James, the library's Curator of Photography Collections, and Val Williams. With a drastic cut of funds to the Library of Birmingham, its ability to continue to archive the work seemed doubtful. The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford acquired the archive in March 2018. In autumn 2019, the Bodleian celebrated the acquisition with an exhibition of Meadows' work, Now and Then, accompanied by a book. ==Selected exhibitions==

Solo exhibitions • "The Free Photographic Omnibus." Museum of Modern Art Oxford, 1974. • "Living Like This." Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), 1975. To coincide with publication of Meadows' book Living Like This. • "Shuttles, Steam and Soot: A Cotton Mill in Lancashire." Half Moon Gallery (London), 1978. • "Suburbia." The Photographers' Gallery (London), 1987. • "National Portraits: Photographs from the 1970s." Viewpoint Photography Gallery (Salford); Montage Gallery (Derby), 1997. • "National Portraits: Now and Then." Irish Gallery of Photography (Dublin), 2000. • "Now and Then." Photofusion Gallery (Brixton, London), 2001. • "Daniel Meadows: Early Photographic Works." National Science and Media Museum (Bradford), 2011–2012; Ffotogallery (Penarth), 2012; the Gallery, Library of Birmingham, 2014; London College of Communication (London), 2015. • "Now and Then." Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, October–November 2019. Joint and group exhibitions • "Photographs of Butlin's Filey." Impressions Gallery, York, 1972. With Martin Parr. Photographs of Butlin's in Filey. • "Serpentine Photography 73." Serpentine Gallery (London), 1973. Curated by Peter Turner. • "The Other Britain." National Theatre (London), and touring in Britain, 1982. • "Look at Me: Mode en Fotografie in Groot-Brittannië 1960–1998." Curated by Brett Rogers and Val Williams. Kunsthal (Rotterdam), 1998. • "How We Are: Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the Present." Curated by Val Williams and Susan Bright. Tate Britain (London), 2007. • "The British Are Coming." Stephen Bulger Gallery (Toronto), 2007. With Chris Coekin and Tony Ray-Jones. • "No Such Thing as Society." Curated by David Alan Mellor. Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 2008. Tullie House (Carlisle); Ujazdów Castle (Warsaw); 2008–2010. • "Projections of Reality." Red October (Moscow), 2010. Meadows contributed "The Photobus". • "The Other Britain Revisited: Photographs from New Society." Victoria and Albert Museum (London), 2010. • "A Record of England." MAC (Birmingham), 2011. With Homer Sykes. ==Permanent collections==

• Bodleian Libraries (Oxford): Meadows' archive). • Victoria and Albert Museum (London) ==Publications==

Books of work by Meadows • Daniel Meadows. Living Like This: Around Britain in the Seventies. London: Arrow, 1975. . • Daniel Meadows. Nattering in Paradise: A Word from the Suburbs. London: Simon & Schuster, 1988. . With Sara Tibbetts. • Daniel Meadows. Set Pieces: Being about Film Stills Mostly. London: BFI, 1993. , . • Daniel Meadows. National Portraits: Photographs from the 1970s. Edited by Val Williams. Salford: Viewpoint Photography Gallery; Derby: Montage Gallery, 1997. . • Daniel Meadows. The Bus: The Free Photographic Omnibus, 1973–2001: An Adventure in Documentary. London: Harvill, 2001. . • Val Williams. Daniel Meadows: Edited Photographs from the 70s and 80s. Brighton: Photoworks, 2011. . • Daniel Meadows. Now and Then: England 1970–2015. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2019. . • Daniel Meadows. Book of the Road. London: Bluecoat, 2023. Zines of work by Meadows • Stockport Gypsies 1971. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. First in a series of eight zines by Meadows. Edition of 200 copies. • Bancroft Shed Weaving 1976. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 200 copies. • Bancroft Shed Engine House 1976. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 200 copies. • Weldone Boiler Fluers 1976–1977. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 200 copies. • Steeplejack 1976. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 200 copies. • Pig Killing 1975–1976. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 200 copies. • Welfare State International 1976–1983. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 200 copies. • Clayton Ward 1978. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 200 copies. • Eight Stories. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 50 copies. Box set with eight Café Royal publications and a DVD of short films corresponding to each book. • Eight Stories + One. Southport: Café Royal, 2020. Edition of 100 copies. Box set with eight Café Royal publications plus an essay by meadows, "The Daniel Meadows Archive in Nine People". • The Shop on Greame Street 1972. Southport: Café Royal, 2016. Edition of 250 copies. • Testimony February 1987. Southport: Café Royal, 2018. Edition of 150 copies. • Graffiti 1971–1983. Southport: Café Royal, 2018. Edition of 250 copies. Other appearances • British Image 1: Photographs by Homer Sykes, Claire Schwob, John Myers, Daniel Meadows, Bryn Campbell, Roslyn Banish, Ian Dobbie, and Paul Carter. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1975. Meadows' "The Free Photographic Omnibus" appears on pp. 38–49. • Julian Bream: A Life on the Road. London: Macdonald, 1982. . About the lutenist Julian Bream. Text by Tony Palmer, photographs by Meadows. • God in Wales Today: Religion in a Cathedral Town. The Newport Survey 6. Newport: Gwent College of Higher Education, 1986. . Edited by Meadows. • Education: The 5 Rs: Reading, Riting, Rithmetic, Right, Rong: A Photographic Survey of Education in Newport. The Newport Survey 8. Newport: Gwent College of Higher Education, 1988. . Edited by Meadows. • Look at Me: Fashion and Photography in Britain 1960 to the Present: A Touring Exhibition Curated by Brett Rogers and Val Williams. London: British Council, 1998. . • Love Stories. Granta 68. New York: Granta, 1999. . Ed. Ian Jack. Includes "Then and Now" by Meadows. • How We Are: Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the Present, ed. Val Williams and Susan Bright. London: Tate Publishing, 2007. . • No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–1987: From the British Council and the Arts Council Collection, by David Alan Mellor. London: Hayward Publishing, 2007. . ==Awards==

• BAFTA Cymru Award, 2002, for Capture Wales. ==Notes==