“What one man saw, heard, thought and felt on a journey through England” J B Priestly, quoted in English Journey

I was pleased to hear from another British photographer, John Angerson, who is heading out on the road documenting England. Angerson is following in the footsteps of J.B. Priestley who wrote English Journey, a celebrated account of his travels through rural and industrial England in the 1930s. 2009 marks the 75th anniversary of its publication.

Angerson says his project will “highlight– as Priestley did – industry, migration, shifting communities, and citizenship, questions that were as relevant in the 1930s as they are now. Priestley’s English Journey is an example of an individual’s perception of place, and how a place is determined by the particular viewpoint from which it is observed. This is relevant to what we know about the nature of photography. Photographs are subjective- documentary photography can only ever be about the photographer’s perceptions of places, and people they encounter.”

Here are some of his early photographs-

Rob Brown, Deputy Manager of Campanile, French hotel chain, Leicester © John Angerson

Etap hotel, West Quay Road, Southampton. Price per night £46.00 © John Angerson

Student James Cottle, Coventry © John Angerson

Lish Fernandes, call centre worker and finalist in the Miss Wiltshire Beauty contest, Swindon © John Angerson

Black Castle Public House, Brislington, Bristol © John Angerson

Cruise liner in Southampton, Docks for repairs © John Angerson

New housing estate, Baildon, Bradford © John Angerson

Asim Bukhari, worker at NG Bailey, a building service solutions company © John Angerson

The Sweet Centre restaurant, Lumb Lane, Bradford © John Angerson

Stafford Roadchef Services, Junction 15, M6 motorway, Stoke-on-Trent © John Angerson

Anna Baranovska orginally from Latvia who was shortlisted for Miss England, Birmingham © John Angerson

Carpeo Ltd is a 2500 square foot Call centre with 130 employees, Swindon © John Angerson

You can see more on his website. I’ve also sent a few questions to John about the project which I’ll hopefully be able to post up soon.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 9:32 am and is filed under OTHER STUDIES, RESEARCH. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.