Ian Beesley Retrospective

There's a fabulous photography exhibition currently on display in the roof space (a former spinning shed) in Salts Mill. Called simply 'Life', it is a major career retrospective of the work of local social documentary photographer Ian Beesley. It's on until October 30th (check opening times) and I highly recommend it. 

It includes examples of Ian's work spanning 40 years, from a career that started inauspiciously when he was expelled from school! He started work at Esholt Sewage Works, where his colleagues urged him to find his passion and get educated. He discovered photography, attended Bradford Art College and then Bournemouth and Poole College of Art. He gained a Kodak scholarship for social documentation and began a lifelong study of the North's cultural and industrial heritage, and the people who populate it. He has gained numerous awards and his work is exhibited internationally and held in numerous collections. For all that, his modesty means that he isn't exactly a household name (unlike, for example, Martin Parr), which in some ways is a shame. (I had to smile at an article that was printed in one of the major newspapers some time ago, with an accompanying headshot purporting to be of Ian, the photographer. He notes that it is in fact a mugshot of a criminal by the same name! The newspaper's pictures editor messed that one up!)

His work includes projects in the last coal mines in the UK, our textile mills (including documenting the closure of Salts Mill as a working textile mill), studies of Bradford's streets and mills in the 1970s and 80s, and more recent collaborative projects that are mainly portraits - centenarians, children 'Born in Bradford', and projects researching the effects of dementia. Ian has a very down to earth persona and style, and the display is peppered with handwritten notes and observations, often wry and humorous, as well as displays showing how he develops, prints and hones his images. They are mostly black and white prints, with many - if not most - taken on analogue film. 

I first came across Ian way back in the 1970s, when I used to work with his sister. He was then just starting out and it has been interesting and heartwarming to see his gradual development into a world class photographer - whilst remaining very down to earth and approachable. 

To see some of the photos, click HERE. 

Some of the photos in the exhibition are linked with evocative poems by Yorkshire poet Ian McMillan. The two Ians have worked collaboratively for many years. Thus they document not only the demise of our heavy industries but the language that is getting lost along the way too. The punched steel sheets on the wall (above) list some of the trades that have disappeared: Carders, Casters, Combers, Fettlers, Doffers, Liggers, Tatlers, Burlers, Menders, Porers, Corers, Stampers, Mulespinners, Capsteamers, Slubbers and Fellmongers among them. 

As a descendant of several generations of coal miners and now living in this Victorian industrial village of Saltaire, where history pours out of the very walls, I found the exhibition poignant and moving. As I say, highly recommended.