A year in the life of Chew Stoke village

Abstract

"In 1992 Martin Parr immersed himself in the rural Somerset village of Chew Stoke, situated on the outskirts of Bristol, where he spent a year documenting village life. This resulted in an early Parr body of social documentary photography and was originally a commission for The Telegraph Magazine. The Telegraph Magazine featured the project over 16 pages in 1993 and an exhibition of the work was held at the Chew Stoke village hall. This will be the first time the work has been shown in 30 years and the exhibition brings together an archive wall featuring over 250 images from the project alongside large exhibition prints. Several villages were shortlisted to be the subject of the commission and Chew Stoke was selected because it met all the criteria to make it a traditional English village; it had a shop, village hall, pub, post-office, church and schools – the key establishments around which village life rotate."-- Provided by publisher.