MARK NEVILLE – DEEDS NOT WORDS
2013-07-29Deeds Not Words is an experimental documentary and an urgent intervention. For 18 months Mark Neville photographed the town of Corby in Northamptonshire: its people, its culture and the effects of environmental pollution that led to several babies being born with serious birth defects. Neville followed the ‘Corby 16’ as they fought, successfully, to indict the local council for negligent disposal of waste from the town’s steel mills which had closed in the 1980s. In 2011 Neville produced a book, comprised of his photographs, scientific findings and a summary of the case. This was not for sale but was sent to each of the 433 local authorities in the UK, and to environmental agencies internationally, to raise awareness of issues around the handling of toxic waste and the reuse of contaminated land.
The photographs present the community as a whole, not simply the families at the centre of the case. They show the persisting Scottish identity in the English town, even amongst third and fourth generation families, and on various manifestations of ‘beauty’: young women at nightclubs, entrants in a beauty contest, children dressed for the town’s Highland Games. It’s a story of industrial growth and decline, regeneration and solidarity. Two boys involved in the court case, George Taylor and Ben Vissian, both born with fingers missing, are given a context, surrounded by other members of their community whose lives have been shaped by some of the samesocio-economic factors.
Exhibition runs from August 2nd to September 29th, 2013
The Photographers’ Gallery
16 – 18 Ramillies Street
London
W1F 7LW
thephotographersgallery.org.uk
