Impressions Gallery

Red Saunders’ epic photographic tableaux vivants (‘living pictures’) recreate momentous but overlooked events from Britain’s struggle for democracy and equality, from the Peasants Revolt of 1381 to the Chartist movement of the mid nineteenth century.  Shown as part of Ways of Looking, a new photography festival in Bradford, this first major solo exhibition of Saunders’ work features the world premiere of two dramatic new works, specially commissioned by Impressions Gallery and The Culture Company.

Watch the video below to find out more about the making of Hidden



Focussing on the contributions of ordinary men and women, rather than the monarchs and ‘Great Men’ that dominate official history, Saunders seeks to shed light on the parallel, ‘hidden history’ of revolutionaries and radicals. Meticulously detailed, atmospherically lit, and historically accurate, each scene is recreated and posed by models, providing photographic ‘evidence’ for events that occurred before the widespread adoption of camera technology.

The impressively large-scale works, some six metres long, feature amongst others William Cuffay, a black worker and son of a slave, signing the great ‘People’s Charter’ of 1842; Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women and precursor of modern feminism; and triumphant rebel leader Wat Tyler after his peasant army seized London in 1381.

Unveiled for the first time in the exhibition, the first newly commissioned work focuses on women’s activism during the English Civil War (1642 - 1651), recreating a dusk campsite scene where female radicals address a large crowd of soldiers, Levellers and dissenters.  The second, inspired by the nationwide agricultural Swing Riots of 1830, is a dramatic night scene where hooded farmworkers emerge from rushes to act against repressive landlord farmers.

Saunders says ‘my hope is that these images can give new life to these important episodes of working people’s history’.

Red Saunders  is a professional photographer who combines his photographic practice with cultural, artistic, musical, and political activism. A former member of the 60's underground theatre group CAST, he made his name with nearly two decades of work for the ground breaking Sunday Times colour supplement, until he ended his association following the Wapping dispute of 1986-7. He was a founder member and activist with the Rock Against Racism campaign from 1976 onwards. An arson attack destroyed his studio and life work in 1994 and he did not return to photography until the end of the decade, turning instead film-making. In recent years he has focussed on personal work, the Hidden project.

Exhibition resources

Click here to download an information sheet about the exhibition (pdf 184kb)
Click here to download a large print information sheet about the exhibition (pdf 188kb)
Click here to download the Hidden Exhibition Guide  (pdf 6.7mb)

What the papers say

BBC website
Telegraph and Argus
The Yorkshire Post (pdf 2.5mb)
The Guardian (pdf 4.3mb)

Exhibition on Tour

People's History Museum, Manchester, 9 March to 29 September 2013.
Winchester Discovery Centre, 18 January to 16 March 2014

In 2013 and 2014, Impressions Gallery toured the Hidden exhibition to primary and secondary schools throughout the Bradford district, find out more at http://hiddenschoolstour.com