Cammell Laird’s 1988

I recently had the huge privilege of meeting Denis Thorpe at the opening of his ‘A View From The North Exhibition’ at Stockport Memorial Art Gallery. I’ve been a fan since seeing his exhibition at the Lowry a few years back and my copy of his book ‘On Home Ground’ is well thumbed.

Denis was born in Mansfield and started as a (written) journalist before becoming a photojournalist, initially with the Daily Mail and later with the Manchester Evening News and Guardian in Manchester. He moved to Stockport with his family and has been there ever since. He retired in 1996 and is now 86.

Colliery, Lancashire, 1970’s

Being a press photographer, he covered many stories at home and abroad, but given my interests, it is natural that I am attracted to his work that covers industry in the 70’s and 80’s.

It was through reviewing ‘On Home Ground’ that inspired me to visit Birkenhead to see the Cammell Laird cranes (blog post coming soon), although the scenes he captured are long gone.

Given the long duration over which Denis was working, and the scope of this work, the exhibtion manages to cover a good selection of his images at home and abroad – from his early images in Mansfield in 1950, the Stockport Air Disaster of 1967, the miners strike of 1984, through to the Strangeways Riot.

Bluecoat Press have published a book also titled ‘A View From The North’, and I’d highly recommend it as a comprehensive document of Denis’s career.

The exhibition runs until 20th October and I would highly recommend it!

The book is available from Bluecoat Press here: https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/a-view-from-the-north/

Miner, Nottinghamshire, 1984

Police and Pickets, 1984