First Retrospective of Photographer Paddy Summerfield at the Bodleian

The Camera Helps is the first retrospective dedicated to British social documentary photographer Paddy Summerfield.

Running in Blackwell Hall at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford until November 30,  from 11 October - 30 November 2025 the exhibition focuses on Summerfield who rose to prominence in the early 1970s with deeply psychological studies of himself, his family, and the world around him. Summerfield died in 2024 and his substantial body of work was acquired by the Bodleian. 

Curated by Summerfield’s wife and collaborator Patricia Baker-Cassidy, and friend, photographer and printer Alex Schneideman, the exhibition brings together all of his published works, as well as significant unpublished material. Timed to coincide with Photo Oxford 2025, the city’s biennial photography festival, the exhibition forms part of this year’s festival theme of 'Truth'.

Much of Summerfield’s work dealt with themes of loneliness, detachment, desire and the inner life. Notable series on display include Mother and Father (Dewi Publishing, 2014), a poignant journal of the final years of his parents’ 60-year marriage. From 1997 to 2007, Summerfield documented his mother’s worsening Alzheimer’s and his father’s unceasing dedication to caring for her. Considered one of his most significant and influential works, it has been cited by many of today’s leading documentary photographers. 

Summerfield’s deep connection to Oxford shaped his life and work, having lived in the same home in the city from the age of two until his death. Another series on display, The Oxford Pictures 1968—78, captures students during the summer term at Oxford. Summerfield found a shared sense of loneliness in his subjects. Though set beside rivers, college lawns, and Oxford streets, the images evoke the insecurities of youth, including longing, isolation, and sexual anxiety, with solitary figures reflecting his own experience.

Unpublished works on display for the first time include Tony Lights Up (2016), a short photo-essay and portrait of ‘Tony’, a familiar figure at the time to locals, living in sheltered accommodation. The series follows his daily routine -  asking for small change, laughing at the world around him, and betting on dogs - culminating in the quiet satisfaction of lighting a cigarette. Also on display is Handheld, a series presenting found objects collected from streets, junk shops, and nature that reflect traces of human lives and personal heroes. Handheld is displayed alongside the original objects it portrays.

"Paddy’s work is significant because he has influenced a generation of photographers whose work is concerned with family and the emotional space between the individual and the world," said Schneideman. "His work is really about his own psychology. It was impossible to know
where Paddy ended and photography began."

Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian and the Helen Hamlyn Director of the University Libraries, added: "Paddy Summerfield was one of the most important British photographers of the last 50 years. Although his work only came to prominence in more recent years, he influenced many younger photographers with his deeply personal view of the world around him.