Bøker av Johny Pitts

Look Again is a new series of short books from Tate Publishing, opening up the conversation about British art over the last 500 years, and exploring what art has to tell us about our lives today. Written by leading voices from the worlds of literature, art and culture, each book sheds new light on some of the most well-known, best-loved and thought-provoking artworks in the national collection, and asks us to look again. Author, photographer and broadcaster Johny Pitts examines the notion of 'visibility' in Tate's galleries, asking who gets to be seen - and why. The well-known faces of our best-loved paintings hang visible on the walls of Tate - but look beyond and you will also see the 'invisible' figures in the background whose stories have been obscured by history, hidden in plain sight. And yet, these stories belong to those on whom the galleries depend the most: standing guard in the corners, serving in our cafes and cleaning in the early mornings. Featuring original sketches by Tate staff that respond to works from Britain's national collection of art, Look Again: Visibility asks us to bear witness to figures who have long been overlooked by a system that profits from their labour while simultaneously dismissing it as 'unskilled' - and suggests that perhaps the way to reach a fuller understanding of our history is to start looking at it through new eyes.

'Beautiful, haunting, thought-provoking ... A book I will return to again and again' Bernardine Evaristo'Masterful ... A thing of brilliance' Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water A gorgeously produced, hugely original examination of Black Britishness in the 21st centuryWhat is Black Britain?In 2021, award-winning poet Roger Robinson and acclaimed photographer Johny Pitts rented a red Mini Cooper and decided to follow the coast clockwise in search of an answer to this question. Leaving London, they followed the River Thames east towards Tilbury, where the Empire Windrush docked in 1948. Too often, that is where the history told about Black Britain begins and ends - but Robinson and Pitts continued out of London, following the coast clockwise through Margate to Land's End, Bristol to Blackpool, Glasgow to John O'Groats and Scarborough to Southend on Sea. Here, the authors found not only Black British culture long overlooked in official narratives of Britain, but also the history of Empire and transatlantic slavery to which every Briton is tethered.Home Is Not a Place is the spectacular result of the journey they documented: a free-form composition of photography, poetry and essays that offers a book-length reflection upon Black Britishness - its complexity, strength and resilience - at the start of a new decade.