Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins

“Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins” was a photographic exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in 2018, a collective exhibition of about 20 contemporary artists who fascinated life on the margins of society.

Next, the Barbican produced the exhibition catalog and a series of podcasts: “Let’s take a closer look at some of the stories behind photographers and their subjects in our podcast series.”
Through “Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins”, with the help of curators, photographers and a series of speakers, the lives of individuals and communities operating on the margins of society were explored.
A series of three podcasts has been published throughout the show, one a month, with a different photographer and their work

Subscribe to the Barbican Art Gallery podcast on iTunes, Acast or Spotify – or wherever you find your podcasts – to hear latest episode.
https://sites.barbican.org.uk/anotherkindoflifestory/

Touching on themes of countercultures, subcultures and minorities of all kinds, ‘Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins’ features the work of 20 photographers from the 1950s to the present day.
Another Kind of Life followed the lives of individuals & communities on the fringes of society from America to India, Chile to Nigeria. Driven by personal and political motivations, many of the photographers sought to provide an authentic representation of the disenfranchised communities with whom they spent months, years or even decades with, often conspiring with them to construct their own identity through the camera lens.

Featuring communities of sexual experimenters, romantic rebels, outlaws, survivalists, the economically dispossessed and those who openly flout social convention, the works present the outsider as an agent of change. From street photography to portraiture, vernacular albums to documentary reportage, the show includes the Casa Susanna Collection, Paz Errazuriz, Pieter Hugo, Mary Ellen Mark and Dayanita Singh.

At a time when individual rights are being contested and when those on the fringes of society feel deeply threatened, this powerful photographic compilation delivers a message of humanity and inclusiveness that transcends geopolitical and cultural boundaries.
Works by critically acclaimed photographers including Bruce Davidson, Paz Errazuriz, Jim Goldberg, Danny Lyon, Mary Ellen Mark, Boris Mikhailov, Daido Moriyama, and Dayanita Singh cast a compassionate, unflinching eye on the worlds inhabited by transsexuals, hookers, hustlers, bikers, junkies, circus performers, gang members, survivalists, petty criminals, and others who live in the shadows, on the streets, and out of the public eye.
Grouped by photographer and ranging in genre from portraiture to photojournalism, these images were selected for their authentic and humane perspective, as well as for their artistic brilliance.

An important testament to photography’s power to both expose injustice and provide affirmation for those outside the norm, this collection bears witness to the ways social attitudes change across time and space, and how visual representation can promote understanding and dialogue.