Bridget, John and Freya gave a talk to Ripon Photographic Society and showed a selection of images from the After the Coal Dust project.

Here’s the press release for the evening.

PRESS Report 15/3/18

This week we were very pleased to welcome John, Bridget and Freya Gill to show their series of photographs ‘After the Coal Dust’ from their non-profit project designed to show life in the local area now that the coal mines have closed.
The images are relevant to many areas of a post-industrial Britain and they aim to show a dispassionate look at how people’s lives in these areas look on a day-to-day basis.

John was keen to show the emotional impact, to capture some of the desolation of the areas where some of the old markets still have stall holders and shoppers with an air of bleakness and tiredness; full of interesting simple straightforward shots, lonely streets, life-worn faces, pawn shops, fast food outlets, street benches – black and white photographs that projected a vulnerable, ‘weary of life’ look. Barriers, real or imagined, whether it was cultural, age, mobility or health related were highlighted in clever images from all three of the Gill family raising discussion and debate about Street Photography that, as well as promoting some social issues such as drug use, obesity and homelessness, also promoted some humour, contrasts in colour and a real feel for the streets of these towns; there were also some coastal images that were beautifully shot.

John also does a lot of portrait work and some of the street images that he had used as portrait shots were really startlingly frank and natural, capturing emotions of all kinds.