Stills are delighted to host the
Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition 'After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 - 2024'. The group exhibition brings together working class artists who use photography to explore the nuances of life in all its diversity today, turning their gaze towards both their communities and out to the wider world. The exhibition takes place from 21 March - 28 June 2025 (preview 20 March, 6pm-8pm). After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 - 2024 is curated by Johny Pitts who has previously exhibited at Stills in 2023. The exhibition will also be the first to open at the gallery under the new Directorship at Stills of Vivienne Gamble, who takes up her role in early 2025.
After the End of History offers a picture of working-class life today; from Rene Matic’s portrait of growing up mixed race in a white working-class community in Peterborough, to Elaine Constaintine's documentation of the Northern Soul scene, to Kavi Pujara ode to Leicester's Hindu community, and JA Mortram’s documentation throughout his life of marginalised people while working as a caregiver.
2024, when the exhibition was first conceived, marked 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the symbolic end of Communism. For the economist Francis Fukuyama, writing in the early 1990s, this celebrated triumph of Western Liberal Democracy as the only viable future for global politics represented the “End of History”.
The counter-cultural energies of the 1980s, very often powered up by the alternative ideologies embodied by Communism, and a reaction against Thatcherism, produced a collective, coherent and politically engaged generation of working-class artists. But after the so-called “End of History” was announced in the 1990s, what became of working-class culture and the working class creative? What kind of images has working-class life produced in the last 35 years? After The End of History aims to illuminate these questions.
Artists in the exhibition include; Richard Billingham, Sam Blackwood, Serena Brown, Antony Cairns, Rob Clayton, Joanne Coates, Josh Cole, Artúr Čonka, Elaine Constantine, Natasha Edgington, Richard Grassick, Anna Magnowska, Rene Matic, J A Mortram, Kelly O'Brien, Eddie Otchere, Kavi Pujara, Khadija Saye, Chris Shaw, Trevor Smith, Ewen Spencer, Hannah Starkey, Igoris Taran, Nathaniel Telemaque, Barbara Wasiak and Tom Wood.
Richard Betton drives his son, 1994 © Richard Grassick. Courtesy the artist.
Lin, Careers Advisor and Mother, Wilson House, 1990-91 © Rob Clayton. Courtesy the artist.
Johny Pitts, Curator of After the End of History, says: “Developing a show with Hayward Gallery Touring, which pieces together complex and counterintuitive expressions of working class life through the lens, has been a deeply enriching process. I hope the extraordinary work included offers not only a celebration of the craft and creativity of working class practitioners, but also engages, surprises and inspires a working class audience, and anyone interested in art against-the-odds.
Vivienne Gamble, Director, Stills, says: “We are delighted to welcome Johny back to Stills and to partner with Hayward Gallery Touring to bring this incredible exhibition to new audiences in Edinburgh. We are thrilled to open our 2025 programme with such an in-depth show full of compelling images and perspectives from some of the most exciting talents in British photography today.”
Brian Cass, Senior Curator, Hayward Gallery Touring, says: “Thanks to the insights and passion of curator Johny Pitts, After the End of History offers a portrayal of working-class culture that doesn’t conform to expectation. It features a fascinating range of artists whose visually compelling images challenge the ideals of classic documentary photography while also saying something vital about class, community and creativity. We are delighted to be working with Stills on this project and we hope the exhibition offers audiences a thoughtful, relevant and affirming celebration of working-class creativity.”
After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 - 2024 is a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition curated by Johny Pitts with Hayward Gallery Touring.
The Auditor Figures, 1999 © Chris Shaw. Courtesy the artist.
Junglist, Ah London Sumting, Samantha’s NightClub, Soho, 1995 © Eddie Otchere. Courtesy the artist.
Stills is a centre for photography based in the heart of Edinburgh. We offer exhibitions and production facilities as well as a range of engagement opportunities for anyone to discover, enjoy and understand photography. Stills was established in 1977. Since that time it has become a champion for the important and powerful role that the medium of photography plays in the world today. This exhibition has been organised in line with Stills’ commitment to annual presentations of internationally-renowned work that has not previously been exhibited in Scotland.
Johny Pitts is a photographer and writer born in Sheffield. He is the winner of the 2020 Jhalak Prize and the 2021 European Essay Prize. He lives and works in London.
Johny Pitts is the curator of the ENAR (European Network Against Racism) award-winning online journal
Afropean.com and the author of Afropean: Notes From Black Europe (Penguin Random House) which won the 2020 Jhalak Prize], the 2020 Bread & Roses Award for Radical Publishing, and is the recipient of the 2021 Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding. He currently presents Open Book for BBC Radio 4 and a forthcoming Afropean podcast funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society. Pitts has contributed words and images for The Guardian, The New Statesman, The New York Times, and Condé Nast Traveller. His first solo exhibition Afropean: Travels in Black Europe was exhibited at Foam, Amsterdam in 2020.
All About Stills
Clayponds, 2018 © Serena Brown. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London.
Untitled May 2022 © Hannah Starkey. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London.
Hayward Gallery Touring organises contemporary art exhibitions that tour galleries, museums and other publicly funded venues throughout Britain. In collaboration with artists, independent curators, writers and partner institutions, Hayward Gallery Touring develops imaginative exhibitions that are seen by up to half a million people in over 45 cities and towns each year.
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Small Town Inertia © J A Mortram. Courtesy of the artist.
The Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest multi-arts centre and engages the most diverse audiences of any performing arts organisation in the UK. Our biggest venue, the Royal Festival Hall (2,700 seats) is the lasting legacy of the 1951 Festival of Britain and the ambition and values of that project – that arts, ideas, innovation and culture can heal communities and should be available and accessible to everyone – are still our guiding principles today. The Southbank Centre is uniquely able to offer a wide-ranging, inclusive and world-class artistic programme spanning contemporary visual arts, music, dance, performance, literature, comedy and spoken word across the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, the Hayward Gallery and our free spaces. We are also home to the National Poetry Library, the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) and six resident orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Orchestra).
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Necking, Twice as Nice, Ayia Napa, 2001 © Ewen Spencer. Courtesy the artist.
Bhukan Singh and Gurmeet Kaur, 2021 © Kavi Pujara. Courtesy the artist.
Nana's Back and Bra, 2014 © Kelly O'Brien. Courtesy the artist.
Untitled,1995 © Richard Billingham. Courtesy the artist.
The Delaine Bus, Peterborough, 2022 © Rene Matic. Courtesy the artist.
Steve in his kitchen, 1993–96 © Elaine Constantine. Courtesy the artist.
