30 years after its shocking release, Ray’s a Laugh still captures the dark reality of alcoholism

In 1996, Richard Billingham shocked the art world with his stark, unflinching photographs of his dysfunctional parental home in his photobook, Ray’s a Laugh. The book captured his alcoholic father Ray, his sometimes absent and sometimes abusive mother Liz, as well as his younger brother Jason in their cramped, pet-filled high-rise council flat in the West Midlands. Billingham’s pictures caused debate and drew criticism, but this only helped to cement its iconic status. Nearly 30 years later, Ray’s a Laugh is being re-issued by photo publishers MACK in what Billingham describes as a director’s cut, restoring his original vision.

Billingham captures the everyday chaos of his home life in claustrophobia-inducing snapshots. The camera doesn’t leave the walls of Ray’s small, chintzy flat. The only view of the outside world is through grime-covered windows. You get the sense of being in the room, but little sense of time passing (although it looks like one endless session, the photos were actually shot over several years). You can almost smell Liz’s cigarettes and the rancid homebrew that Ray drinks from plastic measuring jugs. And then there are the pets – cats everywhere – climbing on furniture, being cuddled, being thrown – like a lowbrow version of Dali Atomicus. It’s easy to understand why it attracted criticism; it’s a social documentary without a sense of purpose. There’s little hope and lots of despair.

Billingham was 19 before he picked up a camera and made these photographs. At the time, he was studying on an art foundation course at Bournville College and stacking shelves at Kwik Save to pay his way. He always intended to use these photographs as studies for paintings, but never got around to doing so. Years later, when he went to the University of Sunderland to study fine art, a tutor ‘discovered’ the photographs in a plastic bag and urged Billingham to exhibit them.

It was the right idea at the right time. By the mid ‘90s there was a hunger for challenging art. In 1994, Billingham took part in a group photography show at the Barbican, ‘Who’s Looking at the Family?’. In 1997, Billingham won the Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize (now known as the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize). A number of his photographs were bought by Charles Saatchi, who then exhibited them in the groundbreaking ‘Sensation’ exhibition at the Royal Academy. This was the breakout show for the Young British Artists: Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin, Sarah Lucas, and Marc Quinn. In 2001, Billingham was shortlisted for the Turner Prize, alongside Mike Nelson, Isaac Julien, and the eventual winner, Martin Creed. More recently, in 2018, Billingham produced and directed a film, Ray & Liz, based on the book.

Ray’s a Laugh was originally edited by Michael Collins and Julian Germain and published by Scalo Press. This new edition by MACK includes previously unseen images, as well as a new sequence that reflects Billingham’s artistic vision. The book will be accompanied by Ray’s a Laugh: A Reader, edited by author and photography writer Liz Jobey and featuring essays and conversations reflecting on the original publication and its aftermath.