I Can Help, a title taken from badges worn by supermarket staff, is a series of thirty large colour photographs about Britain's post-industrial consumer boom. Reas presents a penetrating view of supermarket subculture finding pure theatre in everyday situations. There is ironic and incisive observation at work in his portrayal of shopping malls, DIY stores and show houses. In common with Martin Parr, who has been investigating the patterns of middle class life for several years, Reas is working contrary to humanist traditions which have influenced British documentary practice. Reas’s work does come from a documentary tradition but this latest series moves away from the literal descriptive quality inherent in so much documentary work. Reas is concerned with the photograph as a metaphor for issues which have wider implications. 

Paul Reas is currently a teacher in the School of Documentary Photography at Newport, College in Gwent.

Taken from the original programme text.

For further information on this and past exhibitions, visit our Archive and Study Room.