David Alan Mellor (1948–2023) was a British curator, professor and writer. He was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's J. Dudley Johnston Award and Education Award.
Life and career
David Mellor — as he was called before he began using his full name professionally to avoid confusion with the politician of the same name — grew up in Leicester as the child of a lorry-driver and a hairdresser; he attended school intermittently due to his severe asthma. As an undergraduate he studied art at Sussex University under Quentin Bell. During this time Asa Briggs, then Vice-Chancellor of the University, received the archive of Mass-Observation from Tom Harrisson. For his first job Mellor catalogued this archive, and he then published and curated exhibitions about the substantial collection of pre-war photographs of working-class life contained within it.
Exhibitions curated by Mellor include Paradise Lost: The New Romantic Imagination in Britain (Barbican Centre, 1987); The Sixties (1993); and Co-Optic & Documentary Photography Group (Brighton Photo Biennial, 2014). As a professor of art at Sussex University, his students included Jeremy Deller.
He died in September 2023.
Awards
2005: Royal Photographic Society's J. Dudley Johnston Award, shared with Ian Jeffrey 2015: Royal Photographic Society's Education Award
Publications
Cecil Beaton. London: Jonathan Cape, 1994; ; coedited with Philippe Garner
Arthur Tress: Centric 52: Requiem for a Paperweight. Long Beach: California State University, University Art Museum, 1994; David Hiscock. London: Zelda Cheatle, 1995. Sixties London: The Photographs of Robert Whitaker 1965–70. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1996. The Only Blonde in the World: Pauline Boty, 1938–1966. London: AM Publications, 1998. ; with Sue Watling. Chemical Traces: Photography and Conceptual Art, 1968–1998. Kingston upon Hull: Kingston upon Hull City Museums & Art Galleries, 1998; . The Barry Joule Archive: Works on Paper Attributed to Francis Bacon. Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2000; . The Sixties: Britain and France, 1962–1973: The Utopian Years. London: Philip Wilson, 2001; . Tracing Light. Maidstone: Photoworks, 2001; ; with Garry Fabian Miller. The Art of Robyn Denny. London: Black Dog, 2002; . Interpreting Lucian Freud. London: Tate, 2002; . Van Gogh vu par Bacon. Arles: Actes sud, 2002; ; Vincent van Gogh as seen by Francis Bacon, edited by Mellor and Yolande Clergue Liliane Lijn: Works 1959–80. Warwick: Mead Gallery, University of Warwick, 2005; No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–1987: From the British Council and the Arts Council Collection. London: Hayward Publishing, 2007; . Antonioni's "Blow-up". Göttingen: Steidl, 2010. ; with Philippe Garner. The Essential Cecil Beaton: Photographs 1920–1970. Munich: Schirmer Mosel, 2012. ; with Philippe Garner. The Essential Cecil Beaton: Photographien 1920–1970. Munich: Schirmer Mosel, 2012. ; translated into German by Martina Tichy. The Essential Cecil Beaton: Photographies 1920–1970. Malakoff: Hazan, 2012. ; translated into French by Patrick Bouthinon. Cecil Beaton: Retrospectiva. Barcelona: Lunwerg, 2012. ; translated into Spanish by Arturo Muñoz Vico. The Bruce Lacey Experience: Paintings, Sculptures, Installations and Performances. London: Camden Arts Centre, 2012; ; with Bruce Lacey. Conflict, Time, Photography. London: Tate, 2014. ; with Simon Baker and Shoair Mavlian. A Guide for the Protection of the Public in Peacetime. London: Archive of Modern Conflict, 2014; .