An Evening with Photographer Richard Davis

A chilled winters evening talk with the acclaimed photographer Richard Davis.

Richard is a British social documentary and portrait photographer, based in the north-west of England. His interest in photography began in the early 1980s whilst growing up in Birmingham and has been a constant in his life ever since.

Moving to Manchester in 1988 to study photography at the Polytechnic, Richard was in the perfect place to capture the creative explosion that was “Madchester” and its emerging comedy scene. Along the way Richard was the first photographer to photograph Nirvana live in the UK (back in Oct 1989) and the first to photograph Steve Coogan and Caroline Aherne as they both tried out various early comedy characters.

Whilst living in the City, Richard also started documenting life in the inner-city area of Hulme, its huge brutalist inspired concrete crescents, as well as the many characters that inhabited the flats, many of which were squatters.

Richard himself set up his photographic studio and darkroom in a Hulme squat (Charles Barry Crescent).

His work has been promoted and exhibited by the British Culture Archive and photography publishers Cafe Royal Books and Lower Block Publications.