1. How did you get in to social documentary photography? Has it had any affect on your life while documenting other peoples lifes?
“ My initial introduction to social documentary photography was in 1977 while in my first year at college, I discovered a book in the college library ‘A Day Off’ by British photographer Tony Ray Jones which showed me that photography could be used to record everyday situations using a mixture of keen observational skills combined with sense of wit and humour. At the same time I found Diane Arbus’s Aperture Monograph which I found to be inspirational in her technique of using a Rolleiflex camera to achieve close up portraits of people showing the harsh reality of their situation without sentiment or cliché.
I began to take photographs at this point in my local area, everything was beginning to make sense to me in terms of documenting ordinary people within the situations I found myself, I was recording the everyday events and people within my community. In 1978 I saw a copy of Amateur Photographer which had a short feature on a then young British photographer called Martin Parr documenting the community of Hebden Bridge where I saw parallels to my own work in my area. Martin was using Black & White film at that time in his career and it turned out that he was also influenced by the work of Tony Ray Jones.
Later in 1978 I visited the Side Gallery in Newcastle Upon Tyne who were exhibiting the entire collection of Henri Cartier Bresson’s prints from the V&A, which in many ways was an epiphany to me to continue the work which I was undertaking, it taught me a great deal about the benchmark for producing a body of work in the wider sense.
Shortly after this visit I was awarded a commission to produce an exhibition for a local arts organisation developing my earlier work into a more cohesive sequence documenting the lives of people living and working within a mining community, which was continued into 1979 when I received grant funding from Northern Arts (Arts Council) to produce more work in the area.
In 1980 I was commissioned by Side Gallery and taken under their wings as a photographer, through this association with Amber/Side I was introduced to Chris Killip, Graham Smith and Sirkka Liisa Konntinen who were also producing long term projects on the working class communities of the North East of England. They taught me to have faith in the work which I was producing and that by being a documentary photographer was a way of life and not just a vocation/job.Director of Amber the late great Murray Martin always used to say “ Live well within your means and do something you love which gets you up in the mornings”
I can confirm that documentary photography has had a most profound influence on my life for the past 37 years and will continue to do so in the future. The fact that I’ve have a camera in my hands has allowed me to enter many communities, build long term relationships with strangers who have become friends. I was once accused by my wife that I knew more about the life and problems of other people than that of my own close family, which in many ways is true, when I work on projects I have given priority to my work rather than my home life.”
2. Your series “Coal Town” was of your home town Ashington. Photographing your home town and showing others what it was like did it give you a different view of mining and the people involved?
“ I believe that being born and educated in an area gives you a better insight into the lives of people and the environment which you are photographing, many of my subjects were known to me as people with whom I had first hand knowledge, had met on the streets,went to school with,drank in the same clubs. I was never seen as a threat to their privacy, I was known only as someone who always had a camera. I always made prints to give to people whom I’d photographed to continue the relationship further and make other introductions to enter into other situations/environments that might otherwise have been closed to photographers who were seen as ‘outsiders’ .
I come from a traditional mining family going right back to my Great Great Grandfather who travelled from Cornwall to Staffordshire, my Great Grandfather relocated to Ashington in the 1860’s to begin work in the local mines, it’s a generation thing, my grandfather’s, father and my two brothers, as well as my uncles and cousins, have all worked within the coal mining industry. This helped me to gain access to the local collieries and the men and women who worked there, when asked my name I would always be greeted with a smile “I know your Dad/Uncle” etc, which helped to break the ice as far as working was concerned and my reasons for being there. People would often ask why I wanted to photograph them, my answer would be that they were as important to the towns’ history than any celebrity sportsman or local dignatories. My reasons for this will become clear in my next statement.
As mentioned earlier, I completed a commission for a local arts group in 1978, on first seeing my work the head of the local council asked “Where are the bank managers – Rotary Club members – etc”, he was disgusted by the fact that I had photographed in his words ‘ordinary people and dirty snotty kids in the streets’ After the exhibition which they changed the title to ‘A Personal View’ the photographs were never seen again until just a few years ago when the new county archives were established at Woodhorn Museum. My photographic work in the eyes of local politicians and council officials were always considered derogotary and a misrepresentation of the local area. If all they wanted was pretty pictures they had commissioned the wrong photographer.
3. Looking at the series “Coal Town” its not just about mining it shows other areas of the town for example the photograph “Interior unas used clothing shop”. Did you want to show another side of the town? not just the mining since the town was known to be the largest mining village in the world.
I had always wanted to show the town of Ashington in the broadest sense, I would set out to do specific ‘surveys’ in which I would spend a few weeks photographing shopkeepers and trades people around the area, then move on to factory workers working in a number of the local clothing/engineering factories to build up a picture of the working lives and environment of the people of Ashington. This was in addition to any of my work in the local collieries at Ashington, Woodhorn, Lynemouth & Ellington. I also wanted to concentrate on leisure activities and traditional pastimes such as my series on ‘Whippets’ which I did over a twelve month period, this was done at the same time as I was working on paid commissions and other projects.
During 1981-83 I was engaged in a number of commissioned projects which were done at the same time as ongoing projects ‘Pitheads’ ‘ North Blyth’ ‘ Seacoalers’ ‘Whippets’ ‘Riverbank School’ these were all highly involved series of images which were in production/post production as well as commercial/teaching work which I was undertaking at that time.
Over the years I have amassed a collection of around 30,000 negatives in and around the SE Northumberland area which I’m in the process of digitising, I’m discovering a lot of work which on first glance at the time of production were disregarded by myself, now taking on a different significance and meaning to me now when I look back on the work I’ve produced. 99% of the images on my website has been scanned from negatives/prints, I see this as positive way forward to continue the expansion of my archive further for the future, adding to my website as I continue to do photographic work.
4. I also want to know since you have used film photography what do you think of digital photography?
Film V Digital now that’s a question,
Of course when I started out in photography there was only film as a medium of choice, I was producing my own negatives and prints in my darkroom from the very start of my career. I’m proud of the fact that I built up my darkroom skills early as both a photographic technician in terms of processing to an acceptable quality but also my skills as a craftsperson/artisan when it came down to the exhibition printing/production side of photography.
I was given some good advice from Chris Killip back in 1980 which held me in good stead, he told me to print all my work from contact sheets to work prints to exhibition prints on fibre based papers for archival purposes, which I continued to do, he also recommended Agfa Record Rapid paper which I used for many many years which is sadly no longer in production these days.
In the course of my work I’ve used every format of film stock from 35mm/6x6/6x7/6x9cm/5”x4”, I used to use mainly a Rolleiflex TLR camera for portraiture and tripod environmental work and I always had a Leica or Nikon for more candid/ spontaneus work when I was working on the move. As a photographer it was a different way of working given the equipment you were using – different formats would produce a different feel and reaction from both the people you were photographing and the resulting work from yourself as an image maker. I feel that film is more organic, prints from well exposed negatives and produced to the best possible quality by a photographer have more soul put into them and at the end of the day are unique and irreplacable.
As far as Digital photography is concerned I see it as a means to an end, I’ve spoken to students in Colleges where they’ve been surprised to hear me say that digital photography was ‘pot noodle’ by that I mean instant gratification - a quick fix for a fast world. I do own a couple of digital cameras which I have started to use for my work but I still use my film cameras for project work – I have a fear that using digital exclusively would be a bad move for me as a photographer, I can still value the tactile quality of a film negative which can be printed using analogue/chemical means. I realy worry that all my digital files will disappear from my hardrive one day because the machine(computer) fails. Of course you can backup files, but at the end of the day there’s never a feeling of permanence with a digital capture on a memory card. Images can be deleted as quick as you can press a button by mistake.
Another worry I have with digital photography is the integrity of images produced with digital and the many digital manipulations which files are subjected to – it gets away from the truth of an image if objects/people are removed for the sake of artistic interpretation and that the feel of a scene is digitally enhanced for effect. Much of my colour work with digital has been for that purpose only – effect. I like to exaggerate colours to the point of images looking quite surreal, probably my own reaction to the medium.
Mobile phone/tablet photography will be the true future of media/photojournalism in this visually hungry world of ours.
5. Finally what advise would you give to someone who wanted to be a documentary photographer?
My advise would be to have clear ideas about what sorts of projects you would like to undertake, do your homework and research your subject so that you are aware of the wider picture before you start making pictures. Above all approach your work with integrity, don’t photograph truth then make it a lie by manipulation or misleading captions/context. Narrative is important, for photographers just starting out in Documentary I would advise them to find a place or a subject they are already engaged with or have an interest in – then you’re half way there.
Above all don’t use telephoto lenses – I’ve always used either a 50mm or 28mm lens exclusively when using my 35mm cameras, remember that the best telephoto/wide angle is your feet, get close to your subjects and then the viewers of your work can get closer to your intentions as a photographer, the closer you are the better, be upfront and don’t ‘steal’ candid images from 100 yards away.
These days we have millions of photographers roaming the world with their cameras, the market place is swamped with images every minute of the day on every subject under the sun, concentrate on stories which can be expanded into a broad collection of work with a worthwhile conclusion, many young photographers feel that they must go abroad to find stories when they probably have a thousand untold stories right on their doorsteps.
