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Lad in Middlesbrough FC ‘Boro’ hat, leaning against Tom Hatton’s houseboat, 1973Ian Macdonald was born in Middlesbrough. Since 1968 he has photographed consistently across the hinterland of his native Cleveland in the north-east of England. Ian Macdonald: Process, Environment and the Print is at Flow photographic gallery until 30 April 2023. An exhibition catalogue is available to purchase. All photographs: Ian Macdonald
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Young John Allison after a fishing trip standing beside Blackwell’s houseboat, 1973The exhibition and the catalogue consist of ‘work’ prints created as the first step on the journey towards a finished exhibition print. Macdonald comments: ‘As well as offering a good sense of the potential of a photograph, work prints are also very useful when laid out side by side, to gain a better understanding of how a body of work could look but, more importantly, seeing how one photograph may work next to another. Work prints are invaluable when beginning to form exhibitions or when editing a book’
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Cote Hill Island, equinox flood tide, autumn, 1974Macdonald: ‘Early photographs were made with a Rolleicord 6 x 6 and a Pentax K1000, but took on a greater sense of purpose when I started using a 4 x 5 inch camera. Using a it brought challenges that were both taxing and inspirational. They forced me to slow down and give greater consideration to what I was looking at. The tripod and the dark cloth created a barrier, offering physical detachment from what I was photographing, but at the same time, it also intensified what I was viewing’
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Paddy’s Hole at the South Gare Teesmouth, 1986‘My ability to draw has always been key to my photography. Making detailed drawings of a landscape, which took time – perhaps four, five or six hours on one drawing – engendered an alternative experience of my environment. The “looking” was deepened by the sensation of changing light and weather, of sounds, wind and bird cries, but most importantly, the passage of time. Often, after drawing for long periods, photographs would simply appear, I did not need to look for them’
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Portrait of Ian Macdonald by his son, Jamie Macdonald, 1975Now the houseboats, the blast furnace and shipbuilding have been lost forever. These images seem to be talismans to the past; beyond mere record or document. The work also pays homage to Ian’s father and grandfather, who spent their working lives in the heavy industry of Teesside
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Snow on the beach, looking south-east along Coatham sands from the South Gare Tees Bay, 1986This exhibition covers three major bodies of work from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s: Greatham Creek; the Redcar blast furnace and Smith’s Dock Shipyard. ‘These places have existed on the horizon of my life for as long as I can remember,’ says Macdonald
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A foreman contract worker working a night shift on the blast furnace, 1983‘I developed a rhythm of using the 4 x 5 camera, of ensuring the dark slides containing the film were kept dust-free, of developing a repetition of operations, everything necessary to eliminate mistakes’
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Mark Dewse, a burner at Smith’s Dock, 1986‘When making portraits, which is my favourite occupation, the encumbrances of 4 x 5 seemed to stimulate a sense of seriousness in the person sitting for me. This seemed to relax each individual allowing them to become more themselves’
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Canteen staff at Redcar Blast Furnace Site at the end of their shift before going home, 1983You can read more about this image in the Observer’s Big Picture feature
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A front-side blast furnace worker settling a freshly cast furnace using vermiculite to calm the flow of molten iron from the furnace tap hole, 1975The work print is invariably a straight print – a negative placed in the enlarger, a step test print made to ascertain general exposure
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Ice on the ponds in front of the Coke making plant on the Redcar blast furnace site, 1986 If there are obvious imbalances of light values within the negative then a crude holding back or burning-in may be made
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2am on the morning of launch day for 1360 ship, to be named North Islands, the last ship to be built on the river Tees, 1986Alex Schneideman, the curator at Flow Gallery, says: ‘An exhibition of a photographer’s “work prints”, that exposes the craft that goes into making “fine copies” is only made possible by the confidence that is founded on a lifetime of engagement with the medium’
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Tony Burke, a shipwright, standing beneath the stern of 1360 Ship, 1986‘The exhibition reflects the development of a practice that is as unified with the man as his photography is with the mud and blood of Greatham Creek and the Tees Estuary’
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A shipyard worker handling a heavy wire hawser in mooring North Islands up to the outfitting berth, Smith’s Dock, 1986‘This is not an easy collection of “high-spot” works that confirm the greatness of one our foremost documentarians, rather, it affords the curious viewer a clue to the artistic development of a photographer who has played a substantial role in shaping the terms of engagement of British self-reflection through photographic means’
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A striking block used in the manufacture of wire-made hawsers in the Sail Loft at Smith’s Dock shipyard, 1986Macdonald’s work reflects the increasing sophistication with which British photographers of the time were engaging in their medium
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Smith’s Dock outfitting berth, 1986Macdonald: ‘Swans, seen for the first time in my memory, on the river Tees’
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