The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Sept 2015 back issue
by Patrick Ward
I started out as a freelance photographer in the early 1960s and these images were all made during that decade. Some
were shot for the newly created Sunday Times Magazine, some for the housing charity Shelter and some, more
surprisingly, for the Architectural Review. They, under a new and adventurous editor, approached me in 1969 and
suggested that I take off for six weeks to capture the state of the nation. A rather ambitious idea but we, the editorial
team and I, all became inspired by the project and ended up with a 75 page essay which thrilled us and the readers but
shocked the old guard at the magazine! A few months later I flew up to Glasgow to photograph in the Gorbals slums for
the charity Shelter. By then I had already travelled through Latin America and Mexico and thought I knew a little about
poverty and squalor, so I was surprised and saddened to find even greater suffering just an hour’s flight from London.
Looking back I realize that I was lucky to have worked through this period, when magazine really believed they had a
social mission and that photography was a powerful part of that cause.
Some of these images appear in Patrick’s new book, Being English, available from the Bluecoat Press
Coal miner with his racing pigeons in Horden, County Durham.
Saturday night dance in Workington, Cumbria.
Kids playing in Workington, Cumbria.
Teenage miner and playful kids in Horden, Cumbria.
Miners at union meeting, Workington, Cumbria.
Miners at union meeting, Workington, Cumbria.
Underground with miners in Horden, Cumbria
Miners in the bath house in Horden, Cumbria.
Mining family in Horden, Cumbria.
Slum housing in the Gorbals, Glasgow.
Child and family in the Gorbals, Glasgow.
Business leaders convention in London.
Business leaders convention in London.
Signing on for work, Greenock, and laundry in East London.
Ship building workers in Greenock, Scotland.
Salvation Army meeting on Brighton Beach.
Child care clinic in London.
Elderly lady in East London.
