Why Jim Mortram’s work on Market Towns is one of the great British photo projects of our times
Written by duckrabbitRead the text. Look at the photos in the film.
If you still don’t get it, you probably never will.
This work is dynamite. Don’t do Jim a favor, do yourself one, buy a print. They are a steal. (details at bottom of the post)
I’m having a Print Sale to raise the funds to enable me to begin work on my first book next year. I have to get a camera (At the moment I borrow all the ones I shoot with) and cover the expenses of the book, film etc
For the last 18 months together with people on or far beyond the outskirts of my local Market Towns community I have been recording through collaborative environmental portraiture, audio and video interviews coupled with straight documentary shoots their life stories and memories, musings, hopes and struggles.
I do this with a passion and belief that the photographs we can make have a weight and longevity beyond our time here, have an ability to communicate a story long after the characters have departed, they are time capsules awaiting discovery.
These are moments of daily endurance that in a generation will have passed forever.
I work as a full time Carer in my families home and at the end of the week there is no budget for any photographic work. Most all of my equipment is borrowed and all of my shoots are completed in free time away from my duties at home.
Market Town has no end date, it’s a project I will work on forever, constantly updating how I present the stories via essays, interviews, articles, stories, portraits, mixed media exhibitions and a series of books.
All the prints (from my last exhibition ‘Market Town’) seen in this presentation video are available as singles in sizes 16 x 12 £30 per print or 20 x 16 £50 per print or as a very limited boxed (10 sets of each, signed) set of all 20 prints 16 X 12 £300 or 20 X 16 £500
http://vimeo.com/32221835
More info available here :
wix.com/jamortram/jamortram#!donate
Please email me @
james.mortram@hotmail.co.uk for all the details.
…thanks for putting up with this and other posts, gotta do what you gotta do to keep a project alive and the work and people and social situations within these series are very important to me – thanks for all your support and patience during this phase, it’s so much more than merely appreciated.
Author — duckrabbit
duckrabbit is a production company formed by radio producer/journalist Benjamin Chesterton and photographer David White. We specialize in digital storytelling.
Discussion (20 Comments)
lovely, lovely work.
would make me want to be be a photographer ! … I’m glad you are supporting Mr Mortram … can you use your duckrabbit powers to get this project the exposure it deserves pls …
Justin … I’ve been thinking about this … what might be done theoretically … perhaps a days of skill sharing … thinking cap on.
Dear Mr Duckrabbit
My cap is ready and waiting …
Justin
Hey, great piece, love the Eric Friedlander music to go with the images, perfect! I’ve been following Jim’s work for quite some time, and he really is the real deal, doing authentic and relentlessly intimate work with people who normally we would avert our eyes from looking at. That’s what it’s all about, and that’s what Jim is all about. Congratulations to Jim, and to Duckrabbit for giving him more exposure.
Ciara, Justin, DuckRabbit, Mike, not sure where to start with my thanks for your comments, support and help. It’s really an honour to receive all by people whom I hold in the highest respect. Thank you all, very much indeed!.
Empathy For The Win.
Thankyou Jim.
Thanks Dave
Coming late to this. But I’ve looked twice now, just to make sure what I saw the first time was for real. Bloody hell its like having a cold shower. That particular kind of cold shower that leaves you breathless at first, then tingling all over and aware that blood is surging back into some of your extremities. This is work with impact. Well done mate, and also respect for your subjects too, letting you into the intimacy of their lives like this is a big ask. Thanks for sharing. And good luck with it as it grows. (ps I want to know more about the people)
Thanks for your thoughts John, really much appreciated. Over coming months there will be lots more back story to the people within the portraits. There’s a little glimpse here :
http://storyful.com/JAMortram/1000009720
Thank you Jim – that was worth seeing (and listening to). More like that would be very very enlightening.
These are f-ing fantastic–I love his way of working, straight in the line from folks like Richards and Davidson.
John : Thank you so much, yes there will be much more work in the vein of the Storyful post.
Mike : Thank you very much indeed, to be even mentioned in the same sentence as Richards and Davidson is more than an honour.
As good as Avedon’s In the American West
Jon, thank you! A long way’s to go yet with this project and were I to get even close to In the American West well, I’ll have done my best for the people I photograph.
Jim, love all the shots. this isn’t the first time I’ve watched this.
cheers!
Thank you Trevor.
Superb environmental portaiture, the images just ooze sympathy and understanding. I’ve placed a link to James’s work on my website.
Thank you very much Gary, really appreciated.