ATCD-John 
Although After the Coal Dust was originally intended to show life in the former industrial areas of the North of England it seems that things aren’t so different in the seaside towns of North Wales. These pictures were taken in a few hours in Rhyl, November 2018.
Some of you may have noticed that some of the photo galleries on the site have been missing over the past few days, hopefully everything is back to normal now.
We’ve recently changed the company hosting the website and the missing galleries was an unforeseen consequence of moving everything over.
John
The double page spread featured a short interview and a selection of photographs from the exhibition.
We’ve just added a new gallery of photographs – “Street Portraits” taken on the streets of the local towns.
Although all the photographs were taken candidly on the streets we’ve attempted to create a ‘studio feel’ to the images.
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.
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.
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.
– 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.
