• The North

THE NORTH by John Bulmer *(signed edition)

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John Bulmer’s superb photographs were taken at a time when the North was undergoing a vast transformation.

A stunning collection of photographs from the 1960s to 70s – from black and white to colour taken by the photojournalist John Bulmer, set out to document life in the bleak industrial centres of the north of England.

John Bulmer’s superb photographs were taken at a time when the North was undergoing a vast transformation. The collapse of traditional industries that had been the wealth creators of the Industrial Revolution was deeply affecting communities throughout the region; from the Black Country and Potteries, through Greater Manchester up to the coalfields and shipyards of the North East and Glasgow. The hard times etched on the faces of John’s subjects told of a life of struggle framed against an often bleak industrial background. These were the people forgotten as the ‘Swinging Sixties’ changed the cultural landscape. Ironically, the first photographs were taken in 1960, the year Coronation Street was first screened with its own take on Northern life. The drama on the screen, however, could never get close to the rawness of the monochrome images of Nelson, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington or Hartlepool. The launch of The Sunday Times magazine in 1962 was to propel John Bulmer’s photography in a new direction. The sudden switch to colour caught out most photographers, who continued to shoot in black and white. John made the adjustment seamlessly and became one of the magazine’s main contributors. Today, colour is taken for granted but, ay the time, it was a radical body of work and its publication here is in recognition of John’s importance as a photo-journalist of the first rank.

Hardcover 224 pages
Published November 12th 2012 by the Bluecoat Press
ISBN: 9781908457
Edition Language: English

John Bulmer was a pioneer of colour photography in the early 1960’s working for the Sunday Times Magazine from the very first issue till the 1970’s. John Bulmer was recognised immediately for having made the necessary adjustment and thinking specifically in terms of colour became one of the most prolific contributors of colour reportage to the Sunday Times Colour Section. John Bulmer also moved sideways into making documentary films. He filmed a programme on the life of Van Gogh in the South of France, directed by Mai Zetterling, and went on to direct many films on travel and untouched tribes in the most inaccessible parts of the world. These were primarily shown on BBC, Nat Geo and Discovery Channel. He has now returned to Herefordshire to catalogue and show his huge collection of still photographs, many of which have never been seen.

Special signed edition

To learn more about John Bulmer and his work, click here.

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