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.

The After the Coal Dust exhibition is currently underway at the Bradford Industrial Museum until the end of April 2018. A trailer for the exhibition by the Museum and Bradford City of Film  is shown periodically on the big screen in Bradford City Park in the town centre – here’s the slideshow:

The exhibition displays around 36 images from the project in the Gallery in the Mill exhibition space in the Industrial Museum.

Exhibition Opening Times

Tuesday to Friday 10am – 4pm

Saturday, Sunday & Bank Holiday Mondays 11am – 4pm

Closed Good Friday and Mondays except Bank Holidays.

https://bradford-city-of-film.com/big-screen/whats-on/?date1=upcoming#NorthinFocus

Photographs from the After the Coal Dust project will be exhibited at the Bradford Industrial Museum from November 18th 2017 until 27th April 2018

The exhibition will feature a new collection of photographs taken by John, Bridget and Freya Gill.

A new gallery of photographs taken in the coastal towns of the North of England has been added to the After the Coal Dust site.

This new set of photos features images taken on the Yorkshire coast (Scarborough, Bridlington etc) as well as pictures of Blackpool and Liverpool on the west coast.

Art by Freya

– Freya Gill has recently set up a separate website for displaying her artwork and photography. Art by Freya will offer sales of prints from her various paintings and drawings as well as showcasing some of her photography.

Street Photography – Cutting the Crap

Think of a street photographer, one of your favourites. It could be anyone from CartierBresson to someone whose pictures you like on Facebook. Now think about their photographs, the really memorable ones. The ones that immediately spring to mind when someone mentions the photographer’s name. Chances are there won’t be all that many. Even the greats are known for relatively few images.

Therein lies the problem facing photographers today. If even the greats have relatively few ‘great’ images out of the many thousands they have taken what hope for the rest of us?

Out of the millions of pictures posted on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and so on how can we make sure that at least a few of our own photos are amongst the memorable ones?

Street photography in particular seems to be going through a resurgence. Maybe it’s down to easier access to high quality small cameras; maybe it’s just because everyone has a camera with them all the time in their mobile phone. Maybe street photography is suddenly “cool”.

However, this popularity brings its own problems; inevitably most photographs will not be classics and the sheer number of pictures makes it harder to spot the truly memorable ones. The first step must be to make sure that the photograph itself is interesting. This does not necessarily mean that it’s technically perfect or even that it is one with the most ‘likes’.

Of course everyone will have a different view on what constitutes an ‘interesting’ photo but a key factor must be that the picture tells a story. A distinction might be made between single images and those that make up a series or photo essay as in this case it is the set of pictures that tells the story.

But back to single images; the type we post every day on the Facebook groups; how can we be sure that they are interesting and tell a story?

A suggestion: describe your photograph in a single sentence. It doesn’t need to be poetic or especially descriptive, just say what you see. If the sentence you’ve written tells you everything you need to know then the chances are that the picture fails the ‘interesting story’ test. If you find that the sentence leaves you wanting to know more then maybe your photograph warrants a closer look and will capture the viewer’s imagination.

Take the following examples:

1. “A man with long hair and dark glasses is stood under a cloudy sky.”

2. “A long haired man with dark glasses is walking away from a woman kissing a child.”

The first example says it all; the second poses the question ‘why is he walking away?’ or ‘what is the relationship between them?’

If the reader/viewer wants to know more then maybe the picture works.

Undoubtedly there is more to determining what makes a good street photograph than this but it could be a useful tool in deciding which picture is worthwhile and which should be consigned to the reject pile.