A review of my Zoom presentation to Masham Photographic Society on January 7th 2025.
Hello MPC Members and Friends,
Our first meeting of 2025 took place last night and featured a brilliant presentation from Yorkshire photographer John Gill. Twenty MPC members linked into this Zoom presentation, organised at the last minute due to challenging travel conditions making it impossible for many members to make it to the Town Hall.
It was terrific to see Margaret and Anthony join us from Spain, and to see so many members who otherwise would not have been able to make it into Masham last night due to travel problems or, in some cases, illness.
We were rewarded with a wonderful presentation from John Gill. His focus was on his street photography portfolio, largely acquired in the Castleford area of West Yorkshire. Many of the photographs he shared make up his cultural documentary project entitled “After The Coal Dust” (a theme iinspired a bit by Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush”) .
One of the many insightful observations he shared is that his best work as a street photographer has come from observing and photographing a place where he has a deep, intimate knowledge of the people, history, and landscape. For John, Castleford is such a place, a rich source of inspiration and subjects for his photography. You don’t need to travel to New York, Paris, or London to find the best subjects or take outstanding photographs for street photography.
As Margaret pointed out, John’s wonderful, dry sense of humour is coupled with poignant, respectful, revealing images of the people and places around Castleford. His photographs target the mood of the people and the places. Collectively they describe a place that can no longer bind people together around a shared sense of purpose, as coal mining once did for this community in the past.
His photographs are sometimes shocking, sometimes beautiful, sometimes very sad, but they always convey meaning and a sense of reality. He described his amazing “eye” for seeing and capturing a wonderful image as being “just lucky” with a camera but the truth is this: John is a modest, gifted, talented, and inspired photographer who has developed a sound technical knowledge of his craft.
He paid tribute to his years of using film cameras for providing him with the habit of thinking hard about what he sees in the viewfinder or on the screen. His thoughtful deliberation has meant that he usually has a very respectable rate of “keepers” when shooting out and about. He bemoaned the fact that social media has encouraged an avalanche of images that have devalued photography in some ways.
John shared many, many insights into his photography and his thinking, and he encouraged us to stay in touch with him through his website. He would be happy to further discuss his work and answer any questions we may have. His books and other publications are available through his website, including a new “e-Book” version of “After the Coal Dust”.
Text courtesy of Masham Photographic Club