An update from the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee :
Today sees the opening of mono 68 in the Lamb Gallery, University of Dundee.
The exhibition features striking black and white photographs of Dundee in 1968.
The photos were all taken in one month by artist Phil Thomson whilst a student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.
Phil is now a design lecturer at Birmingham City University.
He explains, “The images are a snapshot of Dundee and its inhabitants, in transition from the post-war austerity years to the brave new world of flyovers, shopping centres and tower-blocks. I was aiming to capture the social and urban characteristics of the period – a pronounced gender divide in the workplace, the street as playground, graffiti as an emerging means of expressing identity, personal transactions rather than digital interactions and the nature of inner-city transport. They give a distinct feeling of a lost world, almost a sense of lost innocence.”
Phil decided to re-examine the photographs in 2014, and thanks to social media has been trying to track down information about the people and places he captured. Visit the mono68 Facebook page to see some of the images.
The exhibition will be launched today with a free talk by Phil about the work, which will take place in the D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre on the ground floor of the Tower Building at 5.30pm.
Everyone is welcome and there is no need to book. Following the talk, refreshments will be served in the gallery 6.30-7.30pm. Anyone unable to attend the talk is still welcome to come for the reception afterwards.
