Ian Macdonald: Fixing Time

Exhibition: Ian Macdonald: Fixing Time
Date: Saturday 20 July - Sunday 3 November 2024
Locations: Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art and
Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens
More Info: sunderlandculture.org.uk/even...
Video Credit: Matt Denham
Fixing Time is a retrospective exhibition across two venues - Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art and Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens - exploring 50 years of work by renowned British artist and photographer Ian Macdonald.
Macdonald, boasts a rich and prolific career spanning five decades behind the lens. His photographic journey has been dedicated to documenting life, the evolution of working-class communities, and the rise and fall of industry in Teesside and Cleveland, located in the North-East of England. Macdonald’s extensive body of work aligns with the tradition of British documentary photography that emerged during the mid 1970s and into the 1980s, a period marked by political shifts and social upheaval.
Distinctive in his approach, Macdonald developed a unique style using traditional black-and-white film and print-making techniques. This distinctive aesthetic not only reflects his artistic prowess but also signifies his growing confidence in employing photography as a tool to address the pressing issues observed and lived during that transformative era.
Fixing Time, the inaugural comprehensive retrospective of Macdonald’s oeuvre, unveils the lesser explored yet equally significant facets of his photographic practice. This includes previously unseen portraits captured in secondary schools across England over a span of 35 years. The exhibition also features detailed large-scale drawings-testaments to Macdonald’s skill as a trained draughtsman-which often serve as precursors to his photographic projects. The exhibition incorporates a wealth of photographs, archival materials, publications, and videos, offering a deeper understanding of the “quiet man of British documentary photography” and highlighting Macdonald’s substantial contribution to the realm of British photography.
The exhibition at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art spotlights key photographic series such as The River Tees Estuary, Greatham Creek, and People, Towns and Portraits. Concurrently, the exhibition at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens delves into other significant series like Heavy Industry, Smith’s Dock Shipyard, Redcar Blast Furnace, and School Portraits.
Macdonald’s work has found prominence in numerous exhibitions across the United Kingdom, including prestigious venues such as the Royal Academy, The Photographers Gallery, and the Serpentine Gallery in London. His pieces are held in esteemed public and private art collections globally, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen, the Navigation Foundation in Boston, the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol, the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead, and the MIMA Collection in Middlesbrough. Residing in the village of Grosmont in the North York Moors, Ian Macdonald stands as a celebrated figure in the world of contemporary British photography.
In Association With:
University of Sunderland, Sunderland City Council, Arts Council England
Image: Canteen staff catching up on the day at the end of their shift, Redcar Blast furnace, Autumn 1983. Photograph. Courtesy of the artist.

[@user-rq8gl6uc5w]

Very inspirational video. Thank you

[@guysansom6849]

Wonderful photographer and beautiful drawings.

[@colinwhite5355]

That was very special, striking so many chords. Born in the 50’s, on Hartlepool’s Central Estate, which, like the entire town, was already in decline, I grew up surrounded by powerful imagery; it was on my doorstep, as the derelict rope works at the top of Rokeby Street was my playground. When I wasn’t raking about I was drawing. A father and brother who went into shipbuilding at CMEW and Richardson & Westgarth, I went on to become a teacher studying art and, for a while, painted and drew industrial landscapes. Still in the town and up to my neck in muck and dust, most days. It shapes you, doesn’t it. My best pal went to see the exhibition, yesterday, and said it was wonderful - I’ll be visiting, soon. Thank you, Ian.

[@kevinmcq4889]

Yes! Yes! And yes again. Would love to see this show, and I could listen to him talk forever. People in places, places in time, people in time. it is documentary but it is so much more.

[@darrondavies7041]

I wish I could see the exhibition. Congrats Ian!

[@markwhelan6285]

Inspirational and sensitive artist.😊

[@quattroquattroquattroquattro]

what an inspiration

[@heatonize]

amazing

[@throughmyeyes9940]

a photographer's photographer