Martin Pick What’s left? and What’s next?
Documentary photography combines the visual impact of imagery with the narrative depth of storytelling. This project focuses on documenting the aftermath of the Miners’ Strike and the rapid closure of the coal industry in South Yorkshire. Rather than revisiting the strike of 1984/85, it poses two key questions: What’s left? and What’s next?
I am deeply grateful to those who have shared their stories and allowed me to photograph them during this project. Their insights have shaped my understanding and direction.
The South Yorkshire landscape, once pristine, is now marked by the scars of its industrial past—pottery, steel, quarrying, and most notably, coal mining. Coal was unique in that it shaped not only the land but entire communities. Mining villages were built solely to house miners’ families. When the pits closed the communities were left behind, stripped of the social cohesion that had once defi ned them.
Artspace Gallery
This exhibition is free