Peter Mitchell

I first came across Peter Mitchell's photography when I found his Instagram - @StangelyFamiliar.co.uk. I wasn't aware of the photographer's name or the history behind any of the images on the Instagram page, but was sucked in by the evident nostalgia. A few months later I started to see posters around Leeds with the same images as the Instagram page as well as the handle, however, they had Peter Mitchell's name on. 

I began to do my research and learnt that Peter Mitchell is a documentary photographer and is most know for his work documenting shops, cafe's, and factories in Leeds in the 1970's and 80's. He has published 7 photo books throughout his career and each one shows how he treats his surroundings with immense care within his work. 

The book that I am the most interested in and the one being advertised currently is Mitchell's latest publication Early Sunday Morning. The book is made up of over 90 largely unpublished images, each one selected from a cache of five hundred negatives which have sat unseen for over 30 years. The book reveals the layers of the city’s history, exposed by the changes to the urban landscape that epitomised the 1970s and 80s. Hundred-year-old terraces and cobbled streets sit flanked by concrete flats, with newly cleared ground to either side are presented with Mitchell’s typical graphic framing.

Out of all of Mitchell's work depicting Leeds, the photos from Early Sunday Morning are the most intimate and personal. It is neither the sombre look at destruction seen in Memento Mori, nor the detached view of ‘the man from mars’ of A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission, but a more intimate document of Mitchell’s own Leeds. I find myself drawn to it the most because of the collaboration with Leeds gallery Colours May Vary. The gallery published the posters with Mitchell's photography and stated the locations that they were taken. For example one poster, pictured below, has a picture of The Primrose Pub on Meanwood Road. Because I live on Meanwood Road, right after seeing this picture I went home to photograph the pub and realised it looked almost exactly the same as when Mitchell photographed it. 

I also really resonate with Peter Mitchell's work because I find that he has a sense of humour that quietly comes through his photos. I love the juxtaposition of his style - a formal, documentary style, centred composition and the subject - some rude graffiti or a crumbling terrace house. It seems incredibly British and an amazing depiction of the North.

Mitchell has numerous books that show the documentation of Leeds - such as Strangely Familiar which shows the photographs Mitchell took of Leeds people and their places of work whilst he travelled the city as a truck driver. He photographed factories and shops formally with the use of a step ladder. He also documented the downfall of the Quarry Hill Flats in Leeds in the 1970's, which can be seen in his book Momento Mori. He said about his work depicting the housing estate:  “I photograph dying buildings and Quarry Hill was terminal by the time I got to it. Times change and I know there was no point in keeping Quarry Hill Flats. But what it stood for might have been worth remembering.”