Photography nuts will already know Peter Kennard as one of the most influential photographic artists alive. For others, think of an artist along the lines of Michael Moore, John Pilger and Banksy - that is, left wing, high-profile and politically committed.
This week, a retrospective of Kennard's photomontage career begins at the Pump House Gallery in leafy Battersea Park, titled Uncertified Documents. The 30-year span of Uncertified Documents shows his imaginative and witty treatment of war, the environment, nuclear disarmament and civil liberty.
Unlike many artists, Kennard's works are made for publication, and the show includes everything from early roughs to the published version in newspapers, magazines, posters and books.
Speaking on his career, Peter says: "My work comes out of anger with what is happening in the world, and it always has done. I was against the Viet Nam war and the show goes up to the present with the invasion of Iraq.
"I try to express anger but in an accessible way to try and get through to people."
The world has changed hugely since his early, Heath-era photomontages. Having an anti-war and nuclear power stance was considered subversive, allowing him to "give voice to those who are increasingly marginalised and silenced".
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But these are more populist views now, making it more difficult for him to avoid preaching to the converted. Hence why he crops up in an increasing variety of galleries and publications. "I'm a nebulous figure who turns up in funny places," Kennard states.
Another hurdle he has had to overcome is the proliferation of digital technology, allowing your Gran to get bang into her photomontage, if she so wishes.
Crushed Missile, by Peter Kennard (1980)
"There is so much transformed imagery around that people accept constructed images without questioning their meaning," says Kennard, "they just see the final result.
"It is the idea that is the powerful thing; finding two photos which you join together to get a third meaning."
Nevertheless, Kennard is no Luddite, and has embraced digital technology through recent collaborations with a bright young thing of photography, Cat Picton Phillipps. Nor is his relevance or vitality dimmed; quite the opposite in fact, with the Bush/Blair years provoking the rise of politically-motivated artists. A group of which - including Kennard, Banksy and Italian Blu - travelled to Palestine last year to put on a show combining western and Palestinian artists, raising more than $1 million for local charities.
One particularly striking image in Uncertified Documents is Battersea (1983), which depicts a plug plunged into the top of Battersea Power Station.
"That was about renewable energy and factories becoming socially useful products which reuse their energy," says Kennard, "that was an attempt to visualise that idea.
"The station was still in use then, pushing all this smoke into the air and it seemed like a strong symbol and an iconic building that everyone knew."
Again, how things have changed. More than twenty years later, renewable energy has gone from marginal to global issue, and while Kinnock's Labour party used Kennard's Battersea for its anti-nuclear qualities, Brown's Labour is throwing billions of pounds behind nuclear power.
Uncertified Documents; Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park SW11 4NJ; ; runs until March 30, open Weds-Sun, call 020 7350 0523.
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