Craig Easton is a British photographer who lives in The Wirral and works on long-term social documentary projects that deal with the representation of communities in the North of England.[1][2][3] He has made work about women working in the UK fish processing industry; about the inter-generational nature of poverty and economic hardship in Northern England; about social deprivation, housing, unemployment and immigration in Blackburn; and about how the situation in which young people throughout the UK live, influences their aspirations.

Easton's Fisherwomen has been published as a book and shown in solo exhibitions at Montrose Museum and Hull Maritime Museum. The group project he organised, Sixteen, was exhibited all over the UK in 2019/20. He has been overall winner of Travel Photographer of the Year,[4] and awarded Photographer of the Year at the Sony World Photography Awards.[5] His work is held in the collections of Hull Maritime Museum,[6] Salford University[7] and the University of St Andrews.[8]

Craig Easton: Is Anybody Listening? is showing at Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool until 26 February 2023.[9]

Early life and education

Easton was born in Edinburgh[10][11] and grew up in Liverpool.[2] He studied Physics at the University of Salford in the 1980s.[12]

Life and work

He began his photography career working as a photojournalist at The Independent newspaper in the early 1990s. For an article in 1992, Easton made black and white photographs of the Williams family in Blackpool that "exposed Thatcherism's legacy of child poverty."[1] In 1997, he left The Independent and pursued more long-term photography projects.[10]

Fisherwomen, made between 2013 and at least 2017[13] using a large format film camera, references the early social documentary photography of David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. In 1843 Hill and Adamson photographed the Newhaven fishwives who processed caught fish. Easton's project follows the historical trail of itinerant workers who followed the traditional herring fleet, from Unst in Shetland to Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. Fisherwomen documents, in colour, the connection between previous generations and contemporary workers, still largely women, now almost all working indoors in processing factories and smokehouses.[14][15]

From 2016 to 2020 he again found and photographed three generations of the Williams family in the North of England, in a series in colour about the inter-generational nature of poverty and economic hardship.[1]

Since 2019 Easton has been documenting the neighbourhood of Bank Top in Blackburn.[16] His black and white portraits, and occasional landscapes, made within about a 500 m radius, highlight social deprivation, housing, unemployment and immigration. The work is accompanied by text by local writer and researcher Abdul Aziz Hafiz. The series is part of an initiative by Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, called Kick Down the Barriers, in which artists and writers collaborate with residents of Blackburn in representing their community. The initiative is a response to a 2007 BBC Panorama TV programme that claimed Blackburn was "one of the most segregated towns in Britain". This view has persisted in media representation of the town ever since, but locals refute it. Easton is using an 8×10 large format film camera for the work.[2][10][17] It was published as a book in 2022.[18]

Sixteen was a group photography project conceived and led by Easton where by he and fifteen other photographers collaborated with 16-year-olds from various social backgrounds all around the UK. The young people responded to questions about what it means to be sixteen.[19][20] "The work challenges the notion of meritocracy and examines how social background, ethnicity, gender, location, education, health etc all influence what young people think they can achieve in life." The other photographers were Linda Brownlee, David Copeland, Lottie Davies, Jillian Edelstein, Stuart Freedman, Sophie Gerrard, Kalpesh Lathigra, Roy Mehta, Christopher Nunn, Kelly O'Brien, Kate Peters, Michelle Sank, Abbie Trayler-Smith, Simon Roberts and Robert C Brady.[21] The work was shown in galleries and outdoors all over the UK in 2019/20.

Publications

Publications by Easton

  • Fisherwomen. Ten O'Clock, 2020. Edition of 500 copies.[14] Portfolio format.
  • Bank Top. London: Gost, 2022. ISBN 978-1-910401-68-2. With an essay and field notes by Abdul Aziz Hafiz.[22]

Publications with others

  • 52 Weekends by the Sea. Virgin, 2010. With Brigid Benson. ISBN 978-0753519325.[23]

Awards

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Collections

Easton's work is held in the following permanent collection:

References

  1. 1 2 3 "This photo of children living in poverty caused shock waves in 1992. Where are they now?". The Guardian. 14 November 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 "The view from Bank Top: Craig Easton's images of life in Blackburn". The Observer. 18 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  3. ↑ "Craig Easton captures the vibrancy of Burma's petrol stations". The Independent. 14 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Travel Photographer of the Year 2012 – the best pictures". The Guardian. 10 December 2012. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  5. ↑ Stevenson, Neil (15 April 2021). "Fourteen spectacular winning images from the Sony World Photography Awards 2021". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  6. 1 2 "Women in fishing industry highlighted in new exhibition". Hull City Council. 21 August 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  7. 1 2 "Craig Easton". Artcollection.salford.ac.uk.
  8. 1 2 "A special visit to the St Andrews University Library's Special Collections Photographic Collection – Special Collections blog". Special-collections.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  9. ↑ "Images capture challenges of 2020s Britain, photographer says". BBC News. 12 January 2023. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 "Craig Easton challenges divisive representations of Blackburn". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  11. ↑ "Scottish independence: Meet the 16-year-olds who could change the referendum's outcome". The Independent. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  12. ↑ "Craig Easton named Photographer of the Year". Document Scotland. 15 April 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  13. 1 2 "Craig Easton's Fisherwomen". Document Scotland. 18 April 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  14. 1 2 "Photographing Britain's fisherwomen – the generations of workers who anchored an industry". National Geographic. 3 March 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  15. ↑ "Fish tales: the women working in Scotland's fishing industry - in pictures". The Guardian. 15 September 2018. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  16. ↑ "Craig Easton's award-winning Bank Top made into photo book". Creative Review. 15 February 2022. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  17. ↑ "Sony World Photography Awards 2021 winner Craig Easton portrays an "authentic" Blackburn". Itsnicethat.com. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  18. ↑ "A photographer and writer confront the misrepresentation of northern communities in the UK". 1854.photography. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  19. 1 2 Lewis, Aimee. "Picture of asylum seeker wins Barcelona FC photography award". CNN. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  20. ↑ "'I feel judged daily, by everybody': 16-year-old boys in pictures". The Guardian. 9 March 2019. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  21. ↑ "About sixteen – Sixteen". sixteentouring.co.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  22. ↑ Easton, Craig. "Blackburn was labelled a segregated town. This photographer found a different picture". Thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  23. ↑ "Escape route: Weekends by the British seaside". The Independent. 9 April 2010. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  24. ↑ "Craig Easton y Cristina de Middel ganan la primera edición de los FCBarcelona Photo Awards". Fcbarcelona.es. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  25. ↑ "Portrait of a rescued migrant wins Taylor Wessing photography prize". Amateur Photographer. 16 November 2017. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  26. ↑ "In pictures: 2021 Sony World Photography Awards". BBC News. 15 April 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  27. ↑ "Plague planet: the Sony world photography awards 2021 – in pictures". The Guardian. 15 April 2021. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  28. ↑ "10 stunning images from the Sony Photographer of the Year awards". The Independent. 15 April 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  29. ↑ "These are the spectacular winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2021". TechRadar. 15 April 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  30. ↑ Sharp, Sarah Rose (15 April 2021). "Raw Portraits of UK Village Win Top Prize at Sony World Photography Awards". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  31. ↑ "Sony World Photography Awards winners announced". Amateur Photographer. 15 April 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  32. ↑ Design, Bluestorm (20 April 2021). "Fisherwomen - New exhibition explores the women who…". Maritime Hull. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  33. ↑ "Images capture challenges of 2020s Britain, photographer says". BBC News. 12 January 2023. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  34. ↑ "'My job is to shine a light into dark corners': Photographer Craig Easton on the ongoing deprivation of Thatcher's Children". Creative Boom. 20 January 2023. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  35. ↑ "New Release : CESAR DEZFULI WINS TENTH ANNIVERSARY TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE 2017 FOR HIS PORTRAIT OF A RESCUED MIGRANT" (PDF). Npg.org.uk. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  36. ↑ "Sixteen". Home. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  37. ↑ "The Ascent of Man". The Guardian. 19 March 2019.
  38. ↑ "Sixteen". Format Festival. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  39. ↑ "Open Eye Gallery – A Portrait Of…". Open Eye Gallery. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  40. ↑ "Sixteen - National Touring Exhibition - Northern Eye Photography Festival, Colwyn Bay, Coed Pella". The Northern Eye Photography Festival 2019. Archived from the original on 21 April 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  41. ↑ "Ellesmere Port Library hosts new Sixteen exhibition with help of Whitby High School pupils". Chester and District Standard. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  42. ↑ "Leading photographers explore life at sixteen". Shetland.org. 5 June 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  43. ↑ "Sixteen". Birmingham City University. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  44. ↑ "Sixteen". Belfast Exposed. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  45. ↑ "Sixteen". Street Level Photoworks. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  46. ↑ "Sixteen x S2AU". Photofusion. Archived from the original on 16 May 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  47. ↑ "Blackburn art exhibition aims to "redefine labels of 'segregation' and 'division'"". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  48. ↑ "Kick Down the Barriers Exhibition". Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  49. ↑ "Search Results - Hull Museums Collections". museumcollections.hullcc.gov.uk. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
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