Photobook: Ray's a laugh

Rays a Laugh, 1996, published by Scalo, Zurich, (hard back, 22 x 28cm, 96 pages), is considered one of the most important contemporary photobooks. It is an edited sequenced of photographs made by Billingham from 1990 – 1996 of his immediate family: father ‘Ray’, mother ‘Elizabeth’ and brother ‘Jason’. There is no text inside the book, the idea being that the images stood for themselves. There was a short text on printed on the back of the book by Billingham with a quote by photographer Robert Frank. Ray’s a Laugh was re printed once in paperback in 2000. In May 2014, Errata Editions published a book study of ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ called ‘Book on Books 18, Richard Billingham: Ray’s a Laugh’ (hard back w/ dust jacket, 108 pages, 90 colour illustrations, ISBN: 978-1-935004-35-6) with essays by Charlotte Cotton and Jeffrey Ladd. This series ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ is also Included in ‘The Photobook: A History Volume II’ by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger. Certain images from ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ were drawn on to create scenes for the recent BAFTA nominated feature film for cinema ’Ray & Liz’, 2018, written and directed by Richard Billingham, produced by Jackie Davies and shot by DoP Daniel Landi