© John Bulmer
Veteran photographer John Bulmer’s penchant for the arresting has seen him portray the importance of obesity in Ugandan brides for the Discovery Channel, cross the Himalayas for a journey titled The Search for Shangri-La and produce a film on 14,000-feet high llama herders battling to death in Bolivia for the BBC.
The North was featured in the first ever colour supplement produced by The Sunday Times – who Bulmer later became a prolific contributor to – for its documentation of changing working class life in the North of England during the 1960s and 1970s.
The pictures here are no less entrancing than the ones his more exotic pursuits gathered, capturing the coal mines, cotton mills and industrialisation which gave England a broader cultural and economic society, framed against the character and beauty of the surrounding region and the people driving this revolution.
Detailed shots made at a time when colour photography was rare, these are earthy snapshots of an idiosyncratic moment in time.
- Third Floor Gallery, Bute Street, Cardiff. Open 12pm-6pm Wednesday-Sunday. Admission free.
