36 APRS Panel - Richard Plummer ARPS 54 Documentary Group Events and News
58 “To Intrigue and Inform...” - Mike Longhurst FRPS
76 On the Bookshelf: Debsuddha - Crossroads
90 Documentary Group Online
On the Bookshelf:
DebsuddhaCrossroads. p76
“To Intrigue and Inform...” - Mike Longhurst FRPS. p58
ARPS Panel - The Guild of Handicraft, Richard Plumber ARPS. p36
In Focus: Roger Tiley. p8
From Our Chair
In this edition we have an In Focus on the work of Roger Tiley who studied at Newport and worked extensively on the Miners’ Strike. We also have a successful Distinctions Associateship panel from Richard Plummer. Mike Longhurst’s work follows the creation of a new public sculpture. There is a review of Debsuddha’s book, Crossroads, plus our usual updates of events and news.
The final exhibition of RPS Documentary Photgraphy Awards (DPA) at RPS Bristol has now closed. Harry Hall and I spent a day in Bristol taking it down and packaging everything up so that the boxes and frames can be refurbished and reused. The next edition of DPA will start a little later than planned with submissions in June 2025, as we look to move the submission platform to save money. The intent is to keep the Award format similar with free entry for Members and Students and a paid Open category.
It is pleasing to see Debsuddha’s book published. He was an Awardee as part of our 2021 edition and was provided with some one-to-one support and coaching from Martin Parr. That has now resulted in his work being published (with Martin as editor). He is one of several photographers who have had success in our Awards and then gone on to further success. This is not only pleasing, but helps increase the perceived relevance of our work, which in turn may attract more sponsorship and potential membership.
Our members may be interested in a new exhibition opening in Northumberland. It has been two years since the passing of Mik Critchlow. Mik was one of the first speakers in our Engagement Talks series and we ran a Decisive Moment interview with him. The new exhibition at Woodhorn Museum will celebrate the legacy of Critchlow and his work, and the hugely important role he played in documenting the end of Northumberland’s mining history.
The Coal Town Collection will showcase more than 100 photographs chronicling the town and people of Ashington over four decades. Details of the exhibition, which will open in May 2025, are in this edition’s Events and News section.
If you are in London, I’d also commend the new exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery – Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever, which is a retrospective of his work. Through his work Peter has been described as ‘a narrator of who we were, a chaser of a disappearing world’. I guess that pretty much sums up what a lot of documentary is.
The first of our Engagement Talks this year was Tom Booth Woodger who provided insights from the world of publishing in his role at Bluecoat and what it takes to make a good photobook. Our next talk is with Murray Ballard (27 March) and is immediately after our AGM. If you have not booked, please follow the links provided in the recent group newsletter and notice of AGM.
We also recently visited the Reform Club in London to see the work of their members including four Magnum photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, Burt Glinn, Erich Lessing, plus Platon and other notable photographers.
To close, one thing that is worrying me is that numbers to this visit and some of our recent talks are much lower than expected. That begs the question why? Should we be putting other talks or events on? Or is there some other reason? Please let us know. Feel free to email me directly at: doc@rps.org
Mark A Phillips FRPS Chair, Documentary Group
The Documentary Group Team
Documentary Group Committee:
Chair: Mark A Phillips FRPS doc@rps.org
Secretary: Nick Linnett LRPS docsecretary@rps.org
Finance Officer: Andrew Burton ARPS docfinance@rps.org
Members: Valerie Mather ARPS, Harry Hall FRPS, Wayne Richards, Nick Hodgson FRPS Dave Thorp, Neil Cannon
Local Group Organisers:
East Midlands: Volunteer Required docem@rps.org
South East: Jeff Owen ARPS docse@rps.org
Northern: Peter Dixon ARPS docnorthern@rps.org
Thames Valley: Philip Joyce FRPS doctv@rps.org
Central (with Contemporary): Steff Hutchinson ARPS
North West (with Contemporary): Alan Cameron
Yorkshire: Graham Evans LRPS docyork@rps.org
Southern: Christopher Morris ARPS docsouthern@rps.org
East Anglia: Richard Jeffries docea@rps.org
Scotland (with Contemprary et al): Steve Whittaker email Steve Whittaker
To support the RPS Strategic Plan Photography for Everyone 2021-2026 and to enhance the relevance for Documentary Photography by engaging more diverse audiences and ensuring our activities self-fund.
Inspiration – showcase inspiring photography and to shed new light on subjects of importance
These activities are focussed around showcasing and celebrating high quality photographic work and thinking:
Engagement talks
The Decisive Moment
Documentary Photography Awards (DPA)
DPA touring exhibition
Skills and Knowledge – encouraging a deeper understanding of photography and providing resources for photographic education and Recognition (such as distinctions and awards)
To develop the range and reach of our educational activities. We want to help photographers develop their practice, and also educate non-photographers about what is current in documentary photography:
Workshops
Engage university courses
Resources and support individual development
Distinction support
Community – promote belonging and inclusivity, by supporting and engaging widely
To engage with more people and connect with other communities, including those who are not photographers, to appreciate the value of documentary photography:
Work with groups outside RPS
Regional and local activities
Website and social media
Online competition
Newsletter
The Documentary Group is run by RPS members who volunteer their time. If you can help in any capacity, please email Mark using doc@rps.org to let him know.
rps.org/groups/documentary/about-us
In Focus
Roger Tiley discusses his early days as a photographer and his busy 2025 with
Nick Hodgson FRPS
Roger Tiley (known to everyone as ‘Rog’) has lived and worked in South Wales as a photographer all his life. His photographic journey started at college when he was invited to join a new A level photography course. It was life changing and he then went on become an apprentice industrial photographer for four years.
A love of documentary photography led to him gaining a place on the prestigious Documentary Photography course at Newport under the leadership of renowned Magnum photographer David Hurn. After graduating he began to work for national and international newspapers and magazines. His images gained international recognition, especially his work on the 1984/5 coal miners’ strike.
He continues to work on a variety of documentary projects and chatted to Nick Hodgson about these.
It sounds like, all those years ago, your A Level teachers really did inspire you in a life-changing way?!
I was actually in danger of being expelled from sixth-form college because of too many distractions! Being a typical Welshman I loved playing rugby, I was also a sought-after drummer for local bands, and I really couldn’t get on with some of my chosen A Level subjects. My non-attendance at lectures didn’t go down well with the teachers. So it was suggested that I join a brand-new A Level Photography course as the lecturer, Mr Watson, was desperately short of student numbers. He taught me camera craft. We were asked to shoot a role of film and then the following lesson was about how to process it. It was my job to take the processed negatives off the spiral and hang up them up and I just thought that this was amazing – it seriously changed my life. He then taught us how to print. I was just stunned by it, the whole linear process of taking images to making a print. After that I hardly turned up to rugby training, I needed to be out with my camera, talking to people, looking at the landscape and photographing it. People would come up to me to chat, and from this I started taking their pictures. They’d tell me their life stories!
When the course ended (I got an A in Photography) I started to look at books of famous photographers at galleries in Cardiff and I found an inspirational book on taking photographs by John Hedgecoe. But I didn’t know how I could turn my passion for photography into my profession. Then my old tutor Mr Watson telephoned me and told me about a photography apprenticeship opportunity at a local industrial company called Lucas Girling who made, amongst other things, car brakes. Although I didn’t have a portfolio with me, because it was being marked for my A Level, the interview seemed to go well enough as I was offered the apprenticeship despite not really knowing anything about cars! And I spent four years there shooting work for their brochures and in-house magazine. I was taught about lighting but in truth I knew that I didn’t want to do this sort of photography for ever. I saw an exhibition in Cardiff by John Benton-Harris about the Kentucky Derby, and I realised that this was the sort of work that I wanted to make. I also came across a book by Henri Cartier-Bresson which I arranged to pay for in instalments. I then went to Newport.
How did you know about the famous Newport Documentary Photography MA course?
Well it was pretty well known about by 1982 when I started there. Alongside David Hurn, Ron McCormick, who had shot a project on the River Usk, was also one of the lecturers. For me to be in that environment was, initially, quite intimidating. The course was absolutely amazing. We were assigned to do a ‘man at work’ project, shooting three rolls of film every session. They were getting us used to getting a lens in front of somebody, and it allows you to learn not only how to take good images but also how to work with people. And I was able to draw upon my days at Lucas Girling. The crit (critique) sessions which included Daniel Meadows and Martin Parr were tough. I was criticised so much but got through it all, even missing some lectures to shoot as much as possible, for which David Hurn told me off!
After Newport you spent quite a bit of time working with the coal mining community of South Wales. How was that?
There’s a saying that you’re either an insider or an outsider, and I was described by some as an insider because I’m from the Welsh valleys myself. But I disagree with that – when you go to a coal mine with 900 miners and one photographer, I’m most definitely an outsider until they get to know and trust me and then I become an insider. It’s been the same recently with my US work which we’ll talk about in a while, where I was definitely an outsider but my job was to become an insider and get to the real visual stories that needed to be told.
I had no desire to leave Wales and some of my school mates had become coal miners. It was the natural thing to do. So I ended up visiting a lot of mines, and over time got permission to photograph mines rescue, mining families and social events. I built a network of people who trusted me as a photographer. And then the miners’ strike started in 1984 just as I was finishing at Newport. To cut a very long story short, The Guardian picture desk was very interested in using my images, especially given my access. So I was a photojournalist for quite a while. But the sad part is that the deadlines were so tight, film was being sent by train to London, and many of the negatives were destroyed after use. Some of those images I took would today make a great retrospective of the events in 1984/5.
Jumping ahead to today, there is a lot going on for you in 2025. Shall we start by talking about the ‘Big K’ project.
In 2015 I got a call from a film production company in London about a coal mine called Kellingley, or ‘Big K’ as it was known, up in Yorkshire asking if I’d be interested in taking some still images alongside the video content that they were making for the BBC. I was offered six weeks of total access to the colliery, above and below ground, which was being closed down in December 2015. It was the last deep mine in the United Kingdom, so this was an important moment in the history of British coal mining. So I went up there and met the shift manager at the pit and we immediately hit it off. I think he was impressed by the work I’d shot in South Wales. Two of the miners up in Yorkshire were actually from South Wales, so my name and reputation had already got about! It was a massive colliery compared to what I’d been used to in Wales.
This led to a book of my images. The original idea was for the production company to drive this, but for one reason or another it didn’t happen. So I decided to self-publish. That was a very steep learning curve and stressful time for me, as the design/printing company wasn’t all that it claimed to be, with nothing happening for weeks on end, and I’d already paid them to do the work with pre-orders from the Yorkshire miners. One thing led to another, with the miners wives even threatening to jump on a bus and pay the company a visit, so to speak. And it’s best not to argue with Yorkshire miners’ wives! But I did peacefully get my money back in the end, learning a lot in the process. And then a printer in Sheffield offered to print the book at a very competitive rate, and to be fair did a very good job. I sold out of the print run of 1,000 in just a few weeks, and also personally delivered a signed copy to all the miners in the book.
I thought that would be the end of that particular project, but ten years on, with the 40th anniversary of the strike there’s a lot of interest around the demise of coal mining – I’ve been one of the photographers featured in a book called Coal Faces which was published at the end of last year by Image & Reality Books. So today I’m totally revisiting my work at Big K. My new book, to be published by 2Ten Books, is going to be called Last Man Turn the Lights Off. There were a lot of images that didn’t make the original book, and I think I’m going to have the contact sheets as well as personal favourites in the new book - the design is currently in progress. Revisiting work gives an opportunity to spend time from a fresh perspective, although generally I shoot one good image in 100 frames!
Cage ready to descend to pit bottom
Miners waiting to descend to pit bottom
Shift manager in one of the underground roadways
Miners march in Nottingley, North Yorkshire, after the Big K closed
2Ten Books is your own imprint?
Yes, it was an imprint in the US and they really liked my work. One of the founders subsequently passed away. The other founder retired and she basically passed over 2Ten Books to me. Whilst I have published the work of other photographers, from now on the imprint is purely for my own work. Last Man Turn the Lights Off will be published in October to coincide with BOP25 (the Books On Photography festival) in Bristol on the weekend of 11th and 12th October. It’ll also certainly be launched around the same time at the National Coal Mining Museum in Yorkshire. The print run will probably be 500. And 2Ten will also be publishing a book on my recent work in the US which I shot in September 2023.
Yes, let’s talk about that project. It was commissioned. How did that come about?
The US connection was from the former owner of 2Ten, who organised sponsorship for this project. The brief was a visual interpretation of modern America from the perspective of a five-week road trip. I’m a big fan of the Farm Security Administration work in the 1930’s of Dorthea Lange and Walker Evans. So I thought I’d look at a route across America that included these ‘dust bowl’ states.
This is a very different approach to my usual work. My research came up with lots of road trip images of disused motels, empty gas stations and abandoned buildings, but strangely very little of actual people in today’s America. I googled Route 66 and realised that there was an opportunity to do something different. I would be a British outsider, pitching up and photographing the characters I came across. It was a very different way for me to work. I went through seven states of contrasting landscapes and cultures. For example, in Illinois, Springfield was very different from Chicago. I’d reach a town, and typically just start talking to people. They love the British accent (even if they thought Wales was a place in England!) and I’d explain what I was doing and ask them if I can take some pictures. I was drawing back on my experience in Newport from forty years ago. And typically I’d be told about other characters in the town, county or state to look up and photograph.
Oklahoma was interesting. We were listening to the car radio and heard about a 9/11 commemoration by the various Oklahoma fire departments who were walking up a tower block four times in full gear with breathing apparatus to raise money for charities. Walking up this tower block four times was the equivalent height of one of the World Trade Center towers. I knew I needed to get there and photograph it,
“Documentary photography is basically visual words, a project is a visual essay, so you need to convey that narrative and feeling”
so we got to Tulsa, I started talking to the firemen, and they asked me to walk up with them – just the once, it was far too tiring! So I shot that, and it was an incredible moment.
In Texas I found a shop where they make bespoke cowboy hats. And then on to Arizona where we came across a carnival. Everyone was friendly and I think it was a big advantage to be an outsider. We ended up in LA, deliberately avoiding the tourist parts. We found our way by accident to a demonstration by Mexicans complaining about their living conditions and rent increases. I started photographing them, again as an outsider, and they were really lovely people who were pleased to have the publicity. And for me it was visually interesting.
So I’m working hard on that at the moment. The book should also be ready in time for BOP25. I think it will be a print run of 200.
And what else are you working on?
I live on the banks of the River Tawe (pronounced Towey) and wanted to do a piece of work on something very close to home. When I give talks to colleges, I often get feedback that I was lucky to have had the old Welsh coal mining industry in existence, albeit in decline, for me to work with. But I can’t understand that thinking because there are stories everywhere. I decided to shoot the River Tawe from the source to its mouth in Swansea. But I’m interested less in the landscape and more in the people who live in the valley. Even in a small valley like this one, people and their way of thinking where I live is very different to those down in the city of Swansea. Chloe Dewe Mathews’ book Thames Log is also an inspiration. I don’t necessarily need to travel when there are opportunities here – lots of characters to photograph. I think it should also be a good historical record of the valley for future generations to refer back to.
What kit do you use?
I usually shoot handheld using a Fuji X-T5 with a Fuji 24mm lens, so shooting quite wide. I also have a Fuji X-Pro2 which is a beautiful camera. I’m not really a lens changing guy.
I use Photoshop sparingly. I’ve been brought up on film – if you don’t get it right in-camera, it’s difficult to resolve it fully in the darkroom. So I use that discipline when shooting digitally.
And finally, given your vast experience, what advice do you have for RPS members looking to make more documentary projects?
Firstly, it’s not about camera gear, it’s about what you see in front of you. Look at what you are trying to say – documentary photography is basically visual words, a project is a visual essay, so you need to convey that narrative and feeling. It’s often about shooting lots of the same subject matter, shooting it from different angles, working on the best angles and getting a satisfying composition.
I also think a lot of photographers only go out when the weather is good. Martin Parr taught me to go out in the rain and wind to make work, often resulting in better results. And David Hurn told me to make sure I had a good pair of boots, because a photographer walks miles. His advice is so true!
The final thing is what the French philosopher Roland Barthes called in his book Camera Lucida the ‘Punctum’. Images with an impact. That’s really important. When people look at your pictures, the longer they stop and look at one, the better the picture it is.
Motel lady, Pontiac, Illinois
Volunteer, Pontiac, Illinois
Baseball game, Springfield Cardinals, Missouri
Trans hooker, Chicago, Illinois
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Hells Angel, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Cowboy town, Arizona
Carnival, Kingman, Arizona
Mexican family, Los Angeles, California
Roy, Midway, Adrian, Texas
Richard Plummer ARPS
Documentary Associate Panel - The Guild of
Statement of Intent
Architect-designer Charles Ashbee, a pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement, founded the Guild in 1888. His purpose was to revive craftsmanship and restore traditional design which had been in decline ever since the industrial revolution. The Guild moved to Chipping Campden in 1902 with George Hart as resident metalsmith. His direct descendants continue his artistic achievements to this day. Hart’s Campden workshop is the last operating remnant of the Guild. My intent is
Handicraft
to document this amazing hidden world, its glorious idiosyncrasies, accretions of tools and piles of detritus, accumulated over 122 years.
My aim is to display the crafts-people’s skilful techniques characterised by plain hammered silver and copper, flowing wirework and coloured stones in simple settings; to show their hand-made creations and the extraordinary premises. My objective is to reveal this uniquely English atelier from the past and preserve Ashbee’s Arts and Crafts vision for the future.
Comments by Simon Leach FRPS, Chair of the RPS Distinctions Documentary Assessment Group, on the successful submission by Richard Plummer ARPS
Richard’s submission really deserves to be seen in print, as it was beautifully finished and presented, enhancing the visual narrative. This can be an important consideration for any distinctions submission and demonstrates the author’s overarching individual vision for the project. This body of work is about skill, dedication, craftsmanship and beauty, and the presentation can add to that narrative in a holistic way which was used effectively by him.
Another critical element of a project development is access and relationships. Richard has been able to demonstrate his understanding of the studio and its product through a variety of photographs that he built up over a number of different visits. The images both detailed the wonderful location and illustrated the comfort of the craftspeople within Richard’s presence.
So the challenge then is ensuring one acheives cohesion across the body of work. Taking images over time and in different light conditions can provide challenges. However there are obviously appropriate photographic techniques to be employed in creating a balance across a body of work, and it is not that each image has to be identical, or only extremely rarely, but that cohesion will allow a viewing of the work which is not disrupted or weakened by distractions. Often and most obviously of these disruptions could be colour or tonal shifts, presenting images jarring against one another. But it is these elements of craft which Richard has very deftly controlled.
When working in an environment such as this it was important that Richard was very aware of his compositions. In some photographs so much is going on that it would be very easy to distract the viewer about where they should look. Particularly distracting edge details can lead the viewer directly out of a frame, or just simply cause them to lose their hold in an image. Image 14 (on page 51) is a photograph to be singled out here as example: communicating the chaos and clutter of the studio, the distribution of the light and the focus draws the eye in, but then you are held, there is nothing leading you away.
It sounds calculating when talking of documentary, a genre which many feel should be instantaneous and unplanned but that is precisely why a demonstration of visual awareness and forethought, as Richard has done, can be so powerful. The story of the Hart Studio is not told in the statement of intent but through each frame and through the body of work as a whole. Richard’s statement adds a little he cannot visualise - the history. But most importantly it clearly defines his intentions, introducing what we might see, a clear intent which forms the final criteria that the assessors judge against: are the images conveying that intent? In this case, the answer was a well-deserved yes.
RPS Documentary Events can be found on our events page, which includes our Engagement Talks series, Documentary Events and Exhibitions.
Group Meetings:
As well as centrally organised events, our Local Groups put on numerous events. These include talks and presentations, workshops or exhibitions of members work, group projects, visits and photo walks, feedback and critique sessions and online Zoom meetings.
We currently have Groups in Northern, Yorkshire, East Anglia, Thames Valley, Southern, South East, and joint groups with Contemporary in Scotland, Central and North West.
Woodhorn Museum in Northumberland to become home of Mik Critchlow Collection; new gallery celebrating documentary photographer opening in 2025
To mark the day of the photographer’s 70th birthday (07 March 2025), and two years since his passing, Woodhorn Museum in Northumberland has announced it will open a new gallery dedicated to the acclaimed photographer later this year.
The Coal Town Collection will showcase more than 100 photographs from Critchlow’s Coal Town archive, which first went on display at Woodhorn Museum in November 2021. Chronicling the town and people of Ashington over four decades, ‘Coal Town’ provides a rare glimpse inside the town’s coalfield communities, and captures periods of major social, economic and political change in Northumberland. Critchlow personally selected each photograph from his archive for the original exhibition.
The Coal Town Collection will also feature personal items on loan from Critchlow’s family, including cameras he collected and used during his career, unseen photographs, and other personal ephemera that provide an insight into the man behind the camera.
The new exhibition at Woodhorn Museum will celebrate the legacy of Critchlow and his work, and the hugely important role he played in documenting the end of Northumberland’s mining history.
Liz Ritson, Director of Programmes & Engagement at Woodhorn Museum, said:
“With a career spanning almost 45 years, Mik’s work is one of the most important historical archives we have of the end of deep coal mining in Northumberland. It also captures the short and long-term impact of the industry’s closure on coalfield communities.
“His emotive and deeply personal photographs do more than capture a moment in time; they tell a story of the people and communities he was part of in the town of Ashington.
“Because of his close connections to the people he photographed, Mik was able to capture deeply personal moments in people’s lives. Throughout his career he sensitively documented moments of joy, sadness, and everyday life within the coalfield communities in Ashington. The new gallery celebrating his extraordinary body of work will give visitors to Woodhorn the opportunity to experience and enjoy his work, in Mik’s own words, “…back home where they all belong.”
Born and raised in Ashington, Mik Critchlow amassed an archive of over 50,000 pictures during his 44-year photography career. He began photographing the people and street life of his hometown in 1977 after seeing an exhibition by The Ashington Group (also known as the Pitmen Painters).
Part of a mining family, Mik often referred to coal as being ‘in our blood’. His family moved to Northumberland in the mid 1800s to work in the region’s coal mines. Mik’s grandfather worked at Woodhorn Colliery for 52 years, his father spent 45 years as a miner, and his two brothers also spent 25 years working underground.
Mik died on his birthday (07 March 1955) aged 68 in Ashington, Northumberland.
Maureen Critchlow, Mik’s wife, said: “Mik saw the Coal Town exhibition as the culmination of his life’s work within the area. Even though he’d worked on many projects further afield, it was this one, spanning a period of over 40 years, that was most special to him. He had a deep understanding and empathy for the people who lived and worked in his home town.
“Mik had a longstanding association with Woodhorn Museum, having exhibited his work there many times over the years, and attending many a Miner’s Picnic day. The museum also holds a collection of his original exhibition prints from the 80s in its archive. He would have been honoured to have his work permanently housed in the museum to enable many more people to view it.”
“It is fitting, therefore, for the anniversary of his 70th birthday to coincide with the announcement of the new Mik Critchlow gallery.”
Shona Brown, Mik’s daughter, added: “My Dad had an effortless ability to capture people’s emotions and personalities while simply going about their daily life. Quite often, when looking back on the mining era, it’s easy to automatically think of ‘the miners’ themselves, and not their families or the effects the devastating loss of the industry had on the wider community.
“The selected images were personally chosen by my Dad back in 2021, capturing community life over four decades and creating a breathtaking display. This permanent home of The Coal Town Collection will ensure not only that his legacy lives on, but also the memories and subjects in the images. It’s been a pleasure working closely with the talented team at Woodhorn Museum and I’m confident he would be delighted with the end result.”
Mik Critchlow’s work has also been exhibited and published by Side Gallery, Amber-Side Collection, Brunel University, Durham Art Gallery, Arts Council England, Northern Arts, The British Journal of Photography, and Creative Camera. In 2019, his third solo book, Coal Town – which features a collection of images from the exhibition – was published.
Speaking about the Coal Town exhibition in 2021, Mik said: “For the past 44 years I have photographed the town, people and surrounding areas of Ashington, Northumberland, the town in which I was born, educated and still live.
“Ashington as a community owes its very existence to coal mining, and although the extraction of coal was the major dominant factor in their lives, miners and their families shared many interests. There was always a strong tradition of community life.
“People would often ask me, ‘Why are you photographing me? I’m not royalty’, and I would say, ‘you’re my royalty, you’re just as important’. I’ve always told people they’re important. I was photographing them for history really.
“After all these many years, I feel that I’m bringing these people back to life again, back home where they all belong.
The Coal Town Collection will open at Woodhorn Museum in May 2025. The date will be announced soon. For more information about Woodhorn Museum visit: www.museumsnorthumberland.org.uk.
The journey of creating a new public sculpture “To Intrigue and Inform…”
The crowd has dispersed, the royal party has moved on and a new statue stands unveiled in the centre of Canterbury in the southern English county of Kent, to commemorate yet another deserving female figure that somehow had not been honoured before. Aphra Behn was a 17th century poet, playwright, novelist and spy, whose risqué works later displeased the Victorians and led to her being quietly airbrushed out of history.
Passers-by in Canterbury may well have their interest piqued or their knowledge increased by seeing a very lifelike statue of Aphra. But how many of them wonder how she came to be there? They might well be aware of the local fund-raising and action group who commissioned her, the public competition that selected the final version from a shortlist of four options, and they might have seen the announcement of Christine Charlesworth as the choice of sculptor. But like me, they might have limited or no knowledge of the actual process that goes into creating a statue that might stand for the centuries.
So when Christine told me she had won the Aphra Behn commission, I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to follow the actual process at first hand – a process which would end up taking well over a year.
I started by documenting the steps that had led to Christine winning the commission - the research she had done to understand the life of Aphra Behn and how Christine could create a vision of how she would portray her subject.
Christine had proposed a very lifelike sculpture, which people could relate to, similar in style to her previous work which includes suffragette Emily Wilding Davison in the centre of Epsom, Surrey; the young climate change activist Greta Thunberg for Winchester University; and the composer and writer Dame Ethel Smyth which stands enthusiastically conducting at Dukes Court in Woking, Surrey.
In Epsom I had seen women sit down and talk to Emily and hold her hand. “There is absolutely no point in a sculpture figure being simply a shape in a public place,” said Christine. “It must intrigue and inform. People should be encouraged to follow links and find out more about a person who they might never have heard of. That should be its main purpose”.
The Maquette
In her purpose-built studio, conveniently close to her back door, the little “maquette” that each of the finalists had been required to supply for judgement stood on a revolving plinth in the corner, together with the only reliable picture of Aphra Behn.
Both were referred to constantly as Christine roughly applied 48 buckets of clay to a wire armature, clay that had previously fashioned Emily, Greta and Ethel (it is all recovered for re-use). The wires were still visible in what would become a hand as soon as a solution was decided on as to how to fashion the open book that the sculpture was to hold.
How to fashion the hand and book
To keep it workable, the clay was sprayed with water and covered every night. The tricky decision of how to fashion a book was solved by using a real notebook soaked in hardener – a technique Christine had never tried before.
A real book soaked in hardener
And rather than try to fashion each piece of jewellery and other details, real beads were embedded and strips of lace pressed onto the clay to give the patterning on her dress.
Real beads form the decoration
Satisfied with the clay version, it was time to start the moulding process. Christine started at the top, pouring latex and blowing it into all the little crevices.
Applying latex to the crevices
Within a week, Aphra was covered in 35kg of rubber with flanges for separation kept apart with old photos. Nearly three weeks later, a hard resin and fibreglass shell had been built up over the completed rubber mould.
Covered in rubber
When I arrived at the studio, Christine was hard at work drilling holes into the flanges, which would be used to bolt the mould back together again after removal from the clay. The hard shell is needed to keep the very soft rubber mould in place and stop it from distorting.
Drilling the flanges
With the holes drilled, it was time to remove the resin jacket, then separate the rubber mould.
Separating the resin jacket
The rubber parts would be laid back into the resin sections and clipped together all around the seams using studs before transporting to the foundry. Christine playfully said “I suppose you think they are going to fill this with metal? Everyone does!”
In fact, the foundry filled the mould with wax and then covered it section by section with a ceramic layer which was to be the heat-resistant mould for molten bronze. They added dozens of channels for air to escape and then heat melted out the wax (called the lost wax process) to leave a hollow shell. Eventually all was finally ready for casting the statue piece by piece.
Peeling back the rubber mould
Sections of the ceramic mould are filled with bronze
Embedded in sand, each section was filled with metal and set aside to cool before all the channels and extraneous bits were sawn, filed, or hacked off. With all the parts, large and small, liberated from the ceramic mould and extraneous lengths of bronze, work began to re-assemble Aphra and weld her together. The technician’s skill is in successfully hiding welds that looked like bad surgery scars.
The sections are welded and the welds hidden
At this crucial phase, the artist must supervise and approve everything before it goes to sandblasting and then again afterwards when every tiny glitch is marked up with a felt pen.
Inspection after sandblasting
With the sculpture looking once again like the clay that formed it, it is time for colouring with the final patina to be applied. With the client present and in natural daylight, a blowtorch applies the patina, first making the surface look liquid before cooling to its final appearance, with every tiny detail inspected by the client with an artist’s critical eye.
The surface looks liquid during patinating
The final inspection by the client
And so to Tuesday 25th February 2025 and the moment the sculpture is revealed by Queen Camilla to the citizens of Canterbury who will live with it and pass by it every day. It’s a critical moment full of tension for all concerned with the creation, not least for Christine Charlesworth, who by now has a very maternalistic feeling towards it. It was never just a project to be completed and delivered, but something that remains a part of its creator forever.
Christine talking to Queen Camilla
A new statue stands
On The Bookshelf
Debsuddha Crossroads
Reviewed by Mark Phillips FRPS
In 2021 our Documentary Awards (then, DPOTY) saw Debsuddha win our Open category and was part of our touring exhibition. As part of the awards he was also offered support and mentorship from Martin Parr. Martin helped him develop the project and eventually it was published as a book (co-edited by Martin), by Editions Images Vevey, in September 2024.
In Crossroads, Debsuddha focusses on the intertwined lives of his aunts, Gayatri and Swati Goswami. The book is both an intimate family portrait and a universal exploration of societal marginalization, resilience, and human connection. This deeply personal work not only exemplifies Debsuddha’s artistic vision but also offers a commentary on cultural and social issues.
His aunts, born with albinism in Kolkata, India, have lived secluded lives, shaped by their sensitivity to sunlight and the societal discrimination they faced. Their story unfolds within the walls of their shared home, a space filled with shadows, memories, and their enduring love for music. Debsuddha peels back the layers of their isolation, revealing a world that is at once hauntingly quiet and brimming with unspoken emotions.
Debsuddha’s use of chiaroscuro—a technique that plays with the interplay of light and shadow—is a defining feature of this work. The images shift between spontaneous snapshots and carefully staged portraits, blending documentary and fine art photography. This stylistic choice creates a dreamlike atmosphere, where the boundaries between reality and imagination blur. The photographs, rendered in muted tones and soft contrasts, evoke a sense of timelessness, as if capturing moments suspended.
Each frame is carefully composed with an almost painterly attention to detail. Using the interplay of light streaming through windows, the soft glow of lamps, or the deep shadows of the sisters’ home to emphasize their physical and emotional worlds. The cool tones of the photographs imbue the series with a quiet melancholy.
The narrative structure of Crossroads is non-linear, inviting the viewer to piece together the sisters’ story through visual and emotional cues. The book alternates between moments of solitude, shared laughter, and musical expression, reflecting the rhythm of the sisters’ lives. The sisters’ shared passion for music becomes a refuge from their isolation, a language through which they connect with each other and the world beyond their walls.
Thematically, Crossroads explores the dualities of visibility and invisibility, inclusion and exclusion, and light and shadow. The sisters’ albinism makes them both hyper-visible and socially invisible, a paradox captured with sensitivity. By focusing on their everyday lives, he reframes their story from one of difference to one of universal human experiences—love, resilience, and the search for belonging.
The approach is deeply empathetic, avoiding voyeurism or sensationalism. Instead, he offers a respectful and intimate portrayal that humanizes his subjects while challenging societal perceptions of beauty, normalcy, and difference.
In Crossroads, Debsuddha has created a body of work that is as beautiful as it is thought-provoking.
Crossroads has received widespread acclaim. It was awarded the Images Vevey Book Award for 2023/2024, a testament to its artistic and narrative excellence. Critics have praised the work for its atmospheric storytelling and emotional depth. The Guardian described the series as having a “mesmeric quality,” noting that the “cool tones deliberately chosen resemble snapshots from a dream.”
A few words from Martin Parr to close:
“It was a very nice surprise to see Debsuddha win the RPS documentary project as it was clear by then it was a very good project. Over a period of a few years we kept up a dialogue, for example asking him to go back to the sea to shoot more images of his aunts. I also suggested he enter a few competitions including the one connected to Vevey festival. This he won and it gave him the opportunity to show the work there and get a book of this work published. I am so happy now that his work has a good platform for people to share this very special project.”
RPS Documentary through our biennial awards is pleased to have helped this project and the subsequent photobook on its journey.
Crossroads by Debsuddha is published by Editions Images Vevey, edited by Martin Parr and Stefano Stroll.
A video preview of book is available on youtube.
Online shop at Edition Image Vevey: www.images.ch/shop/en/ products/debsuddha
The Documentary Group Online
The documentary group has a presence on the following platforms, come and join in the conversation. We understand that not everyone has a social media profile or wants to create one. That’s why all our profiles are public and can be viewed by everyone, no matter whether you have an account or not. This means you will be able to view all our posts and book on to ticketed events. Checking our RPS page and searching for events is still a good way to keep informed with all that is happening in the Documentary group. If you have any questions you can always e-mail us – all our contact details are listed there.
Facebook
Facebook Page - facebook.com/rpsdocumentary
Our public Facebook page highlights projects and events related to Documentary photography.
Facebook Group - facebook.com/groups/RPSDVJ
We also have a closed group Facebook page, exclusively for our members. If you want to join us there, you can share your pictures with us, ask for advice, and engage with our online community.
Instagram @rpsdoc
Instagram is an image-based social media platform, so think of our profile as of an online gallery. If you follow us there, you can see pictures from our competition winners, DM contributors and members along with invitations to events and images from these occasions. Instagram is the place where we want to promote the work of our group and our members to the wider public and encourage them to follow and engage with our projects.
Flickr
Royal Photographic Society - Documentary Group
Documentary Group members run an active group on Flickr with plenty of images and the opportunity to discuss them with the group.
rps.org/documentary
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Our X/Twitter page is for short important updates such as events, exhibitions, call for entries or other announcements. If you do not have much time for scrolling on social media but still want to be in on the action, we recommend you to follow us there. We promise we’ll be short and concise.
Issuu
Issuu.com - Documentary Group, Royal Photographic Society
The Decisive Moment is published on the Issuu platform where you can read each edition online or download pdfs to read offline. Please follow the Documentary Group in Issuu and use the buttons to like and share your favourite editions or individual features - it really helps support the Documentary Group.
Website
rps.org/documentary
The Documentary Special Interest Group has a section on The Royal Photographic Society website. Here you can learn more about the group, hear about recent news and future events and access an increasing number of documentary photography resources.
Documentary is about developing a narrative or story using images. Our Documentary Group members have a common interest in documentary, urban and street, photography. The group offers a lively events programme, a regular e-journal and the opportunity to participate in other photographic initiatives.
Documentary photography communicates a clear narrative through visual literacy. It can be applied to social, cultural, historical and political events.
Documentary photographers’ work always has an intent; whether that is to represent daily life, explore a specific subject, deepen our thinking, or influence our opinions. rps.org/documentary
Members form a dynamic and diverse group of photographers globally who share a common interest in documentary and street photography.
We welcome photographers of all skill levels and offer members a diverse programme of workshops, photoshoots, longer-term projects, exhibitions, an online journal and newsletter and the RPS Documentary Photography Award (DPA).
Some longer-term collaborative projects are in the pipeline for the future. We have a active membership who participate in regional meetings, regular competitions and exchange ideas online through our social media groups.
The Documentary Group is always keen to expand its activities and relies on ideas and volunteer input from its members.
If you’re not a member come and join us. Find us on the RPS website at: rps.org/documentary
