Major photography exhibition at two Sunderland venues

A major exhibition by a leading British photographer is coming to two Sunderland venues.

The retrospective exhibition, Fixing Time, will be at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens and Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (NGCA) in the National Glass Centre, exploring 50 years of work by renowned North East industrial photographer Ian Macdonald.

Ian's career has documented life, working-class communities and the rise and fall of heavy industry.

His work chimes with the tradition of British documentary photography that emerged of the 70s and 80s, a period of political shifts and social upheaval.

Macdonald developed a style using traditional black-and-white film and print-making techniques. This eye-catching approach makes the most of his talents and allows him to use photography to address the issues of that transformative era.

Fixing Time is the first comprehensive retrospective of Ian's work. It shows the lesser explored, yet equally significant side of his photography. This includes previously unseen portraits captured in secondary schools across England over 35 years.

The exhibition also features detailed large-scale drawings; he is also a trained draughtsman.

The exhibition features a wealth of photographs, archival materials, publications and videos offering a deeper understanding of the "quiet man of British documentary photography".

The exhibition at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens shows key photographic series such as Heavy Industry, Smith’s Dock Shipyard, Redcar Blast Furnace and School Portraits.

The exhibition at NGCA delves into other significant series such as The River Tees Estuary, Greatham Creek and People, Towns & Portraits.

Martin Parr, British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector said: "I have known Ian Macdonald for over 40 years, watching with quiet admiration his accumulation of documentary photographs, all taken with the same dedication and passion in this extensive work period.

"We can now look back and recognise, not only the documentary value of what he has taken, but also the individual power of some of his images.

"It’s that magical moment that all of us photographers aim for - the photograph that both informs and entertains, but somehow also transforms into a work of art in its own right."

The exhibition begins at both venues on Saturday, July 20 and runs to January 4 at the museum and to November 3 at NGCA.

For more information visit www.sunderlandculture.org.uk.