For the past six years, photographer Katherine Green has been documenting the 1948 British Olympic Team. Her images and oral histories are presented for the first time in a UK touring exhibition. 1948 Olympians is due to be on display at 20-­?21 Visual Arts Centre from 10 March to 16 June. The exhibition will then tour to The Hat Factory Luton, Rugby Museum & Art Gallery and then The North Light, HuddersCield until August 2012. Click through / scroll down for the exact dates and addresses.

Press Release

New exhibition celebrates 1948 Olympians Photography & Oral History by Katherine Green

For the past 6 years, photographer Katherine Green, has been meeting and documenting the 1948 British Olympic Team. Her images and oral histories are presented for the first time in a UK touring exhibition.

1948 was the last time the Olympics were held in London The contrast is stark; London was recovering from war, athletes were truly amateur and therefore not paid. Athletes trained on rations whilst working full-­?time and raising children, they had to take unpaid leave to compete and many had to hand sew their own kits. When the Games were over, they returned to work and carried on as normal.

These images of the athletes that took part that year tell a story of a different age.

For some shown here, sport became their lives but for many it was a past time that practicalities meant they could not continue. Katherine says of this work

“At the same time as drawing parallels between 1948 and the 2012 Olympic Games, I do hope these portraits and oral histories go some way to demonstrate the knowledge and experience of a valuable generation of people who are often overlooked in our society. It has been a great privilege to spend time in the company of such interesting and modest people.”

1948 Olympians is due to be on display at 20-­?21 Visual Arts Centre from 10 March to 16 June.

The exhibition will then tour to The Hat Factory Luton, Rugby Museum & Art Gallery and then The North Light, HuddersCield until August 2012. Katherine Green is a social documentary photographer, from East London, who studied postgraduate photography at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. Katherine’s work often focuses on documenting communities through photography and oral history, exploring what community and a sense of belonging means to different people. Her work aims to highlight and celebrate members of the community who may otherwise go unseen. She exhibits regularly and works to commission. Her work has been published in The Guardian and Time Out.

She has self-­?published two books, Wood Street, E17 and Last Days at the Dogs. Katherine is currently working on a three year commission for the National Portrait Gallery/BT to document community groups in the Cive Olympic boroughs in the run up to the games.

Photographs and oral histories are being published on the Road to 2012 website during 2012.

Exhibition Dates & Venues

Scunthorpe
10 March to 16 June 2012
20-­?21 Visual Arts Centre, Church Square,
Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire
DN15 6TB
Open
Tuesday to Saturday
10am to 4pm.
Free Entry
Tel: 01724 297070 | www.facebook.com/2021VAC

Luton
10 May to 21 June 2012
The Hat Factory, 65–67 Bute Street, Luton, Bedfordshire
LU1 2EY
Free Entry
Tel: 01582 878100
www.thehatfactory.org

Rugby
02 July to 30 August 2012
Rugby Art Gallery & Museum
Little Elborow Street
Little Elborow
St, Rugby
CV21 3BZ
Free Entry
Tel: 01788 533 201
|
www.ragm.org.uk

Photograph: Tommy Godwin, Bronze Medallist, Cycling - Copyright Katherine Green, 2008

Your Comments