The “Real Britain” Postcards

In the early nineteen-seventies, a small group of photographers—including Martin Parr, Gerry Badger, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, and Stephen Weiss—set out to document what they understood to be real British life. Calling themselves the Co-Optic Group, the photographers created a series of postcards that are now on view as part of an exhibition of the Co-Optic archive at the Brighton Photo Biennial.

According to David Mellor, the exhibition’s curator and a professor at the University of Sussex, Co-Optic felt a “social mandate” to create a distinct and authentic snapshot of British cultural life during a documentary revival, when “so many things had the word 'real’ in them.” Drawing inspiration from nineteenth-century realist painting, social surveys, and the street photography of their American contemporaries, the “Real Britain” postcards brought together photographers who were “just approaching break-out moments,” Mellor said.

The Brighton Photo Biennial marks the first, and possibly last, public showing of the postcards. When asked what will happen to them after the exhibition comes down next month, Mellor paused for a moment. “I guess they’ll go back into those nice archive boxes in Stephen [Weiss]’s attic,” he said.

“Real Britain 1974: Co-Optic and Documentary Photography” is on view during the Brighton Photo Biennial at Dorset Place Gallery, at the University of Brighton, through November 2nd.