{"id":77833,"date":"2025-11-28T14:18:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T14:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.1854.photography\/?p=77833"},"modified":"2025-11-28T14:18:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T14:18:30","slug":"stephen-mccoy-proximity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.1854.photography\/2025\/11\/stephen-mccoy-proximity\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping in close Proximity with Stephen McCoy’s very personal work"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From Housing Estates Set 2 (1980) \u00a9 Stephen McCoy<\/h6>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]\n

Testament to staying true to one\u2019s roots, Stephen McCoy\u2019s Proximity<\/em> is on show at the Martin Parr Foundation until 21 December<\/span><\/h2>\n

In 1970, Stephen McCoy\u2019s family bought an empty plot of land. His parents had started married life in a small terraced house in Liverpool, but had expanded their set up over time as McCoy senior, Charles, was promoted at work. But Charles dreamt of building his own home, and the plot, on a housing estate in Ainsdale, near Southport, was his chance. \u201cHe wanted to do things for himself, and he was very capable,\u201d McCoy remembers, adding that Charles did all the design, carpentry, plumbing and electrics himself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Photographs of the house appear in McCoy\u2019s exhibition, Proximity,<\/em> at the Martin Parr Foundation. McCoy\u2019s retrospective comprises multiple bodies of work from over four decades, including early images shot on skittish 35mm, and photographs on the slower 5×4 he favoured for most of his career. But constant throughout is his fascination for the ways we inhabit and imprint ourselves on our spaces, from the private habitats of home to ever-changing cityscapes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Personal Space<\/em> (1980\u20131984) is a study of domestic scenes in McCoy’s Ainsdale home and friends\u2019 and neighbours\u2019 living spaces. A witty take on the family snapshot \u201cinspired by the idea of things going wrong, chopping off people\u2019s heads and things like that\u201d, it became an exploration of composition, form, and \u201cthe different ways an image can be structured\u201d. Personal Space<\/em> also laid the foundations for a practice rooted in deep connections to people and places. One photograph from the series looks down on McCoy\u2019s father\u2019s bald head, his mother\u2019s stockinged foot cutting across the frame.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019d tied a knot in her tights because she\u2019d got a ladder,\u201d he explains. \u201cThose tiny details are so important. And they can be missed if you don\u2019t photograph them and don\u2019t preserve them, they\u2019ll be lost forever.\u201d <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”77830″ img_size=”FULL” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”77829″ img_size=”FULL” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]\n

“I never understood why people photograph strangers,\u201d Stephen McCoy<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]The warmth and humour underpinning McCoy\u2019s work is born of intimacy, of the proximity referenced in the exhibition title. \u201cI never understood why people photograph strangers,\u201d he says, a view strengthened by his time working on Skelmersdale<\/em> (1983\u20131984), a deindustrialised and impoverished Merseyside new town. \u201cIt\u2019s a troubled place,\u201d he says. \u201cI felt uncomfortable just going around, even though I explained to people what I was doing and obviously asked their permission. I felt like an interloper.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After that experience McCoy decided to avoid portraiture, unless he knew the people involved personally. A workshop with Lewis Baltz led him towards the human impact on the landscape, though his work, shifting into colour, diverges from New Topographic deadpan detachment. River to River<\/em> (1985\u20131990) explores land use between the river Mersey and the river Ribble, for example, while Demolition Sites<\/em> (1981\u20131986) looks at transient locations that appeared and disappeared as Liverpool underwent regeneration. The Rimrose Valley<\/em> (2016\u20132025) focuses on a country park in Sefton, meanwhile, under threat from a proposed dual carriageway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

People sometimes appear, but their presence is secondary in these series. \u201cIt\u2019s not about them as individuals, it\u2019s about their role within that bigger landscape,\u201d McCoy explains. Even in Personal Space<\/em>, few faces feature. \u201cI wanted them to be\u2026 almost symbolic of anybody\u2019s family,\u201d McCoy explains. Even so, a specificity runs through his work. Everything is shot in Merseyside, where McCoy lives, some series over five or even 10 years. McCoy patiently revisits the same spots, working to understand the intricacies of each place. <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”77832″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”77831″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Few people have the inclination or talent to construct a home from scratch, but we all shape the world around us, and nowhere is this more evident than in Every House My Mother Lived In<\/em> (2019\u20132025), McCoy retraces his mother Rita\u2019s life through buildings, photographing her at every one, right up to the detached home in Crosby where she recently died. Today, McCoy\u2019s work takes on its own resonance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve been taking photographs for 45, 50 years like me, you have got to embrace that sense of time passing, that it will come to an end, that my ability to take photographs will end,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a question of looking back, looking forward. Here I am in the present. If someone sees one of my photographs from 45 years ago for the first time, it\u2019s contemporary for them.\u201d <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_single_image image=”77827″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_empty_space][vc_separator][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Stephen McCoy: Proximity runs until 21 December at Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol. <\/span>martinparrfoundation.org<\/span><\/a><\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Testament to staying true to one\u2019s roots, Stephen McCoy\u2019s Proximity is on show at the Martin Parr Foundation until 21 December<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":77828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[941,39,12802],"tags":[826,13622,389,4357,13620,13621],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-77833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agenda","category-documentary","category-interview","tag-family","tag-housing-estates","tag-liverpool","tag-martin-parr-foundation","tag-stephen-mccoy","tag-steve-mccoy","post_format-post-format-image"],"yoast_head":"\nKeeping in close Proximity with Stephen McCoy's very personal work - 1854 Photography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Testament to staying true to one\u2019s roots, Stephen McCoy\u2019s Proximity is on show at the Martin Parr Foundation until 21 December\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.1854.photography\/2025\/11\/stephen-mccoy-proximity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping in close Proximity with Stephen McCoy's very personal work - 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