LONDON.- Looking at the Overlooked describes photographer John Myer’s way of encountering the world. The images in this new book, many previously unpublished, were all taken within walking distance of his home in Stourbridge in the West Midlands between 1972 and 1981. The photographs are a study of the mundane and every day which is often seen, yet frequently dismissed.

The sequencing of images in the book follows a journey through a generic town encountering the dual carriageway, the golf course and the lift doors at Waitrose. There is a deliberate absence of people, no implied narrative nor event about to unfold after the frame. These are landscapes of stark austerity – photographs of substations, shops, houses, televisions and landscapes without incident – and with hindsight represent an evolution of the New Topographics photographic movement in the West Midlands.

‘The ‘deadpan’ aspect of these photographs does not just refer to the way the images look, it also describes a way of encountering the world. My intention in these photographs was to acknowledge the refusal of this environment to offer a visual or narrative engagement.’ - John Myers

Looking at the Overlooked by John Myer is the second volume of a series of three, which will represent Myers collected works.

A selection of these photographs were first published in 1974 in the Arts Council funded book Middle England but it is only recently that John Myer’s work has received renewed critical attention. Since exhibiting at IKON Gallery in Birmingham in 2012, his work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and books. His work is included in notable survey collections such as The Photography Book (Phaidon Press, 2014) and is held in the collections of the Library of Birmingham, the Arts Council Collection, and the James Hyman Collection amongst others. Although he is best known for his photography, he is also an accomplished painter and was senior lecturer in fine art at Stourbridge College of Art from 1969 to 1989 and senior lecturer in painting, and head of the MA in painting, at the University of Wolverhampton from 1989 to 2001.