Would the photographs exhibited at Stapleford Granary from 12th – 24th September get a showing if they were by an unknown Philip Smith of Walsall instead of by Philip Larkin, one of the pre-eminent 20th Century poets? Almost certainly not. The exhibition was curated by John Osborne, and has been loaned to the Granary by the Hull History Centre; it combines family snaps with portraits (with some significant self-portraits) landscapes and cityscapes. Larkin was an enthusiastic and prolific photographer, a ‘serious amateur’ according to Mark Haworth-Booth in a curator talk at Stapleford, though he didn’t do his own processing and printing and ‘doesn’t have a style’. Haworth-Booth used the damming word ‘nice’ to describe some of the pictures. If there are a few fine photographs in the exhibition – Larkin has an eye for composition and there is evidence of planning the work – they have to carry a lot of what is ordinary. The format of the show does help in promoting Larkin’s work: photos are uncaptioned and panels of text refer to pictures that are not included.
Rather than expecting great photography, I think we should see them in three ways. First, as gentle insights into Larkin’s life, windows illuminating a complex character. Then as a means for him to connect with a wider society through something that was personal to him. Thirdly, as about life, the moment, being preserved, which is a direct connection with themes running through Larkin’s poetry. Indeed, there are direct reference to photographs in his poems Wild Oats, Whatever Happened? and Lines on A Young Lady’s Photograph Album. Larkin made the everyday special, transcendent, in his poetry; he does not achieve that in the photography shown here.
Larkin stopped writing poetry shortly after his collection High Windows was published in 1974; he seems to have lost his enthusiasm for photography around the same time. This conjunction is surely more than coincidental and points to the links between these two passions. Another exhibition reflecting modern thinking about Larkin and his work might reveal hidden strengths in his photography.