browseShifting Ground
Dean Chapman (Photographer)
Text drawn from Side Gallery archive sources, 2003:
These photographs of young people in Crook, Willington and St Helen Auckland came from the first stage of Dean Chapman’s long-term examination of post-industrial experience in and around the towns and villages of South West Durham, which was ravaged by the pit closure programme of the 1960s. The whole project documents the survival of mining communities and mining culture and the social fractures that now threaten them.
Whether I’m documenting the human rights abuses or the experience of the Karenni in Burma, looking at unfamiliar aspects of life in Japan or, as here, examining communities in the South West Durham Coalfield, my approach lies firmly in the tradition of the ‘concerned photographer’. At no point is the documentation executed with incongruous ‘objective’ detachment. I am interested in people’s thoughts and concerns, and strive to understand, interpret and communicate their aspirations and fears as succinctly, creatively and honestly as is possible. I labour to make images and essays that explore issues of society that aren’t being addressed, or are being ignored in photography, the media or the arts Dean Chapman