{"id":14395,"date":"2014-04-23T14:24:58","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T13:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=14395"},"modified":"2014-04-23T14:24:58","modified_gmt":"2014-04-23T13:24:58","slug":"two-great-social-history-photography-books-the-north-and-coal-not-dole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/two-great-social-history-photography-books-the-north-and-coal-not-dole\/","title":{"rendered":"Two great social history photography books: The North and Coal Not Dole"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Two<\/p>\n

Here’s two great\u00a0photography books\u00a0documenting the struggle of working class communities around the UK in\u00a0the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

John Bulmer’s series of images, “The North”,\u00a0is\u00a0a powerful study of working class life in the North of England during\u00a0the Sixties and Seventies.<\/p>\n

With the old heavy industries in terminal decline, there’s no denying that life Oop North<\/em> was\u00a0particularly grim for the working classes, but Bulmer’s book\u00a0captures proud scenes from a resilient community.<\/p>\n

John Bulmer’s superb photographs were taken at a time when the North was undergoing a vast transformation.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Buy The North<\/a>\"\" here.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Kerstgens’ Coal Not Dole documents life at the sharp end during the Miners Strike of 1984\/1985.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

The young Welsh-born, German-raised photographer tasked himself with capturing scenes from what proved to be the last major\u00a0labour strike in the UK.<\/p>\n

Locals were initially wary of this outsider, but as the photos reveal, he soon earned their trust and was able to document the pride and courage of the workers in mining towns from\u00a0South Wales\u00a0to\u00a0South Yorkshire.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Taking inspiration from Robert Frank’s observations <\/span>on American culture, Kerstgens’ photographs recall the smoky interiors of pubs\u00a0and working mens clubs, as well as the harsh reality of \u00a0living through real hardship. It’s an essential record.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Buy\u00a0Michael Kerstgens – Coal Not Dole<\/a>\"\"\u00a0here (or, even better, seek out your local independent book store).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s two great\u00a0photography books\u00a0documenting the struggle of working class communities around the UK in\u00a0the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,198],"tags":[423,571,814,812,813,162],"class_list":["post-14395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photos","category-wales-places","tag-book","tag-books","tag-coal-not-dole","tag-miners-strike","tag-the-north","tag-yorkshire"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/the-north-john-bulmer.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-3Kb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14402,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14395\/revisions\/14402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}