John Bulmer's haunting images go on display

Feb 7 2010 by Michael Kelly, Sunday Sun

The grimness is still there in his pictures, often taken in subdued light and after rain, but they also possess a degree of gentleness and humanity. The subjects are viewed sympathetically, not patronised as victims.

It’s not surprising that John got on well with his subjects, who often found their well-spoken, well-tailored visitor as exotic as he found them.

Now 71 he said: “It was wonderful – another country altogether. I know that the North had a powerful image at the time, but I genuinely came up here without preconceptions.

“It was just an incredible time. I remember spending a day on a bus with a man from Middlesbrough who was looking for a job. I was amazed at his fortitude.”

He took pictures of people on the beach at Hartlepool scrabbling about for sea coal.

“That was about 1963, the time when the steel works had just closed. Hartlepool had the highest unemployment rate in Britain. They were gathering coal on the beach and it was extraordinarily cold and hard.”

Other pictures taken at Easington Colliery in County Durham, have an almost ghostly quality with the miners stepping out of the mist.

John left newspapers for documentary making in the mid-1970s but he hasn’t forgotten his experiences in the region.

He said: “I’ve always liked the North East. There is a fortitude among the people there.”

The exhibition at Wakefield runs until March but it is hoped a North East venue will take it up in the future.