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George Blair:
Photomontages & Photographs

George Blair, winner of our 2025 Photographic Competition, presents a dynamic exhibition of photomontages and street photography in the Upper Gallery.

Blair's photomontages chart the changing world of work, from the high unemployment of the 1980s to the rise of automation and zero-hour contracts. Viewed through a wry political lens, the exhibition finds humour in the absurd and surreal while reflecting on austerity, social change and overlooked moments in history.

Waldemar Januszczak described Blair's first solo exhibition as "excellent". His banknotes featuring the Crimean nurses are held in the permanent collections of the British Museum and the National Museums of Wales and Scotland, while his photomontage book is part of the Martin Parr Foundation collection. His Job Centres series, presented in the style of seaside postcards, sold over 250,000 copies.

Blair began creating photomontages in 1973 using magazine cuttings, scissors and glue, before moving to Photoshop in 2011. More recently, disillusionment with the political landscape led him towards street photography, though his earlier concerns continue to surface. A woman in a Union Jack dress caught in a sudden downpour becomes a metaphor for modern Britain, while a woman smoking outside a nightclub hints that something is subtly amiss.

His street photography has been exhibited internationally, including at Urban Photo in Trieste, and he was awarded a Gold Medal by Paris International Street Photography for Mr. Mod.

View his website here.