In 2025 Photo North Festival #6 exhibited a selection from the beginnings of Simon Hill’s The North Revisited. One year on we are delighted to welcome him back with an extended selection at PNF#7.
When The Sunday Times Magazine commissioned photojournalist John Bulmer FRPS to document life in the industrial centres of the north of England, it was a time when northern society and culture was undergoing a vast transformation. Traditional industries - coal, steel, textiles, engineering - had been the wealth creators of the Industrial Revolution but they were now in a rapid and relentless decline. The hard times etched on the faces of John’s subjects told of a life of incredible struggle and hardship framed against a bleak industrial background. These were people forgotten as the ‘Swinging Sixties’ changed the cultural landscape of Britain.
On 28 March 1965 the magazine published a Special Issue devoted to ‘The North’ and it was John’s photographs that appeared on the cover and across 13 pages. John later reflected on the significance of this Special Issue, “I was very used to working in colour, but also very aware that no serious professional had photographed the industrial North in colour before.”
Marking the sixtieth anniversary of The Sunday Times Magazine 1965 Special Issue on 'The North', in 2025 Arts Council England (ACE) provided the major funding for a year-long project in which editorial and documentary photographer Simon Hill HonFRPS built on the work of John Bulmer FRPS, whose evocative images of the north of England made in the 1960s have proved to be a cornerstone of British documentary photography.
Over the course of the The North Revisited project, Simon visited the 16 northern towns and cities visited by John (shown below in CAPITALS) plus an additional 20 to provide a more complete photo-documentary coverage of the 'The North'. During the project additional opportunities were identified (shown with an asterisk *) expanding the total number of locations to around 50:
Northumberland Ashington
Tyne & Wear NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
Durham Durham, HARTLEPOOL (and *Seaton Carew), Peterlee, Horden, DAWDON, WALDRIDGE
Cumbria WHITEHAVEN, Barrow in Furness, *Appleby, *Lakeland (Grasmere / Keswick / Wasdale)
Lancashire Blackpool, Blackburn, Burnley, NELSON, Preston
Cheshire WARRINGTON, *Jodrell Bank
West Yorkshire BRADFORD, LEEDS, HALIFAX, HUDDERSFIELD, Wakefield, *Rothwell, *Gawthorpe, *Hebden Bridge
North Yorkshire *Harrogate, Middlesborough, Scarborough, Whitby, *Appletreewick, *Boulby, *Malham
South Yorkshire BARNSLEY, Doncaster, Rotherham, Sheffield
East Riding of Yorkshire Hull (Kingston upon Hull)
Greater Manchester Bolton, MANCHESTER, OLDHAM, Rochdale, SALFORD, Stockport, Wigan, *Longsight
Merseyside LIVERPOOL
Motorways* M1, M6, M60 and M62
In May 2026 the book of the project will be published by Image & Reality as a companion volume to John's 'The North'. The project was managed by Harriet Kendal-Greene.
