browsePost Industrial
Richard Grassick (Photographer)
Exhibition Press Release 2004:
It’s 20 years since the Miners’ Strike, Durham’s last deep coal mine closed in 1993, but much of Europe has seen a dramatic decline in heavy industry over the same period. In 1985 the German city of Bremerhaven employed 6,546 workers in shipbuilding; ten years later 75% of these jobs had been lost. In two photographic narratives Richard Grassick explores the common themes and differing social approaches that have distinguished British and German experience.
The loss of traditional, heavy industries is a phenomenon common to many regions of Europe, says Grassick. As governments local and national try to come to terms with the shift in industrial work to the developing world, thousands of workers are facing the same life-questions. I've been able to develop this exhibition because a number of people both here and in Germany were generous enough to allow me access to their lives and were prepared to open up on the ambivalences and uncertainties they feel.
In classic monochrome, he follows the lives of four ex-miners from East Durham, examining the radically different ways in which they have reconstructed their lives, adapting to rapid de-industrialization. Motorbike enthusiast Leo has found a new role caring for his son and, having adapted well to the drastic cut in income, is happy with this new life. Bandsman, singer and lead in Amber's film Like Father, Joe admits he did everything wrong - blew the redundancy money, drank too much, wrecked his marriage - but is now building a very positive new life. Les and Jimmy share an allotment, regularly go on fishing trips with other former pitmen, but have also had to change their sense of self.
The world around Jürgen, Peter, Joachim and Wolfgang, four Bremerhaven shipyard or ex-shipyard workers, is still changing. There is still some shipbuilding work in the town, but the feeling is strong that it has little or no future. Alongside their lives, the changes are explored by Richard through colour landscapes which move from the monumental labour of a crumbling shipyard to the pristine and manicured grassy verges of the new tourist-friendly river front.
Part of Coalfield Stories, Side’s on-going exploration of Durham’s post-industrial experience, the close portraits of the ex-miners lives are put in this broader context. The work, shot between 1999 and 2003, includes a series of multimedia narratives combining photographs with interviews involving the eight individuals.
Note: The East Durham work formed part of Side's Coalfield Stories programme of production documenting post-industrial experience in Durham.