An interview with Jim Mortram

May 03, 2019 • 1 Comment

Interview with Jim Mortram

Jim Mortram, is a British social documentary photographer and writer, based in Norfolk His ongoing project, Small Town Inertia, records the lives of a number of disadvantaged and marginalised people living near to his home, in order to tell stories, he believes are under-reported.

His photographs and writing are published on his website, in a few zines published bycafé royal books in 2013, and in the book Small Town Inertia published by Bluecoat Press in 2017.

Planning

RH: What attracted and inspired you to your current documentary project?

JM: Being a carer, subsisting on Benefits, seeing the most vulnerable in my town marginalized ever further bu Austerity, the apathy and spin of MSM, the apathy of society.

RH: Can you talk us through the planning stage for your project?

JM:It's not a project, it's life. I got loaned a camera and started, learning as I went.

RH: Is there anything you wish you had done differently?

JM: Taken a break (s) instead of working flat out of a decade.

Implementation and Completion

RH: How have you dealt with any challenges and difficulties within your project?

JM: Like water finds the river, you just have to find solutions to the seemingly infinite challenges of devoting a life to a long form body of work, forming real, lasting and loving relationships with my community and the communities online have been lifesaving and work enabling.

RH: How long do your projects tend to take from start to finish?

JM: It started when I got loaned a camera, it'll end when I'm dead.

Editing and Sequencing

RH: Do have several images to edit of one fleeting moment or do you have one well-constructed precise image that you have captured?

JM: No rules, I work on instinct empowered by experience, if it feels right, it is.

RH: Within the editing stages, have you felt the project has taken on a different narrative than first envisaged?

JM: Nope, I work to fulfil the story shared to me, not to subvert it to suit my own ideas, I am in the service of the person I am making photographs with, not they, I.

Tips and hints

RH: What would you recommend for people starting their own photographic project?

JM: Make work about something you really, really give a fuck about.

RH: Does the camera really matter?

JM: A camera is a paperweight until you pick it up, what matters is the intent we bring to an inanimate tool.

RH: Any books you would recommend reading to get the creativity started?

JM: Don't look at photography books for inspiration, look at them to learn something for yourself, your being, if you look at them to teach you how to make a photograph, you'll end up copying, being influenced, give those books the respect they deserve, look at them with your heart. I'd suggest watching cinema, reading literature, poetry, academic works, listen to music, hell, all of life is inspiration, number one, engage with the people around you, talk with them, LISTEN to them, learn from them, be a part of your community, not and never apart from it.

RH: Would you recommend attending photography workshops?

JM: If you have the dime, why not?, it's your call, not my bag though, if I want to learn to do

something, I'll just keep kicking the wall till it topples.

Find out more at

https://smalltowninertia.co.uk

https://www.instagram.com/smalltowninertia

https://smalltowninertia.tumblr.com