Photographing the Unworthy

This book is an adaptation of the author's study. It aims to show Keith Arnatt's gradual transition from a conceptual artist to a photographer. It analyzes Arnatt's photographic work and puts it in a context of both Arnatt's own artistic career and the artistic movements at the time of the works' creation. It also aims to answer questions of acceptance of photography in the British society as well as the question of what constitutes documentary photography. Parallels between his themes in art and in photography are drawn, together with concepts such as absurdism, paradox, humor, originality, perversity and the painterly characteristic. The goal is to apply these concepts to Arnatt's two most representative photographic series, Pictures from the Rubbish Tip and Notes from Jo. Finally, it addresses some of the myths surrounding Keith Arnatt. Here, it will deal with common interpretations of his landscape work, comparisons with Samuel Palmer, claims that he was an environmentalist artist, his alleged change of personality and the possible causes for the change.