During the early part of the summer, I ran a series of Zoom workshops on creating a ‘body of work’,  as opposed to one-off images, for the Frome Wessex Camera Club (FWCC). As a final task, I asked the group to submit a series of up to 10 images reflecting their overall view of the ‘Closing down and Opening up’ on the country during the 18 months of the pandemic so far. The work was diverse and to a high quality, and the group 25 photographers were enthusiastic about the project. Camera Clubs historically tend to focus on single photographs for competitions, which is well away from my pers ..read more

I am pleased to have been invited to a book by the RPS Contemporary North group. The idea was to bring together personal, photographic approaches to the coronavirus pandemic, literally with 20:20 vision. I was invited to share some of the work from Coronavirus UK, which I had also published as a limited edition book in 2020. Here are some page spreads from 2020 Vision. Click to view larger. Introduction Simon Hill, President of the RPS RPS Contemporary North Mick – pages 1 & 2 Mick – pages 3 & 4 Mick – pages 5 & 6 Mick – pages 7 & 8 You can find the complete 2020 Vision ..read more

I have just been honoured to receive the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society (FRPS) for my Unfinished Stories work in the Contemporary Photography category. This project is on the personal stories of friends who survived the Khmer Rouge Genocide. The first and last images of the panel are shown below. The full Fellowship Panel and Statement is here:  https://www.mickyatesphotography.com/Features/Fellowship-Panel/ Despite all of the tragic issues with the Covid 19 Pandemic, I must admit that my photography has prospered during lockdown. Last Spring I created a daily se ..read more

I have a set of the TimeLife Photography Yearbooks, for the period 1973-1983, which cover the latest news in photography – events, technology, books and ‘discoveries’. These yearbooks accompanied Time-Life’s 17 volume series on photography which I collected as they were released – an important part of my photography education, and still extremely useful today. In the 1997/78 Yearbook, British photographer Ken Baird was the ‘discovery’. I have been going through the volumes recently, and I was knocked out by Ken’s work. Why haven’t we heard more about him and his images? Ken Baird. Day-Whiten ..read more

I do a lot of work combining photographs and words, as I discovered that a photograph can sometimes only contribute to the narrative, rather than completely communicate it. See Photographs with Text, and my work Unfinished Stories from Cambodia. Tony Cearns is a long-time photography acquaintance, and he writes a cool blog as Sideways Eye. He recently wrote a post called Are Words and Images Immiscible? Tony offers comments on both sides of the conversation – from Elliot Erwitt’s insistence that a good photograph does not need words, to a more nuanced approach, going back to Plato. ‘The whole ..read more

There is something about photobooks which is timeless. Exhibitions are fun, educational and inspirational. Social media can pique one’s interest. But a book is different. You can study, take your time, and go back to it over again. I am lucky to have a decent library of photobooks, and this includes a copy of the Edge of Madness: Sarajevo, a city and a  people under siege. This shows the work of Tom Stoddart and Alastair Thain, and is a catalogue of a 1997 exhibition in London. It is a big volume, although it only has 24 pages, and has an excellent introductory essay by Mar ..read more

It is interesting how serendipity ‘happens’. I was asked by academia.edu to consider reviewing a paper by Simon Pierse, Faculty Member at Aberystwyth University, entitled ‘DOUBLES: synchronicity and the Pagham photographs of Keith Vaughan’. Simon’s paper discusses the juxtaposition of images in Lilliput Magazine, which was first published in the UK in 1937. Here is the October 1937 cover, issue 4, beautifully illustrated by Czech-German illustrator Walter Trier (1890-1951): Photo: Paul Jackson, Flickr. Lilliput was founded by Stefan Lorant (István Lóránt), who was bor ..read more

This is an ‘Urban Narratives’ resource list, including many references that have influenced my work, for the University of Leeds COMM5801 Module. The list includes historical, travel, reportage and street photography. It is by necessity rather eclectic, and I have focused more on relatively ‘new’ work although some of the historical greats must be included. I have divided the list into somewhat arbitrary subheadings – history & reportage, travel & culture, and street photography. The books are in my library, published in the last few years, and the web links are current. I have de ..read more

This is a list of contemporary documentary books and other references that have influenced my work. It is by necessity rather eclectic, and I have focused on relatively ‘new’ work rather than the historical greats which of course are important. I have divided the list into somewhat arbitrary subheadings – narratives, photography ‘after the fact’, portrait work and news reportage. The books are in my library, published in the last few years, and the web links are current. I have deliberately not listed, for example, ‘historical conflict photographers’ even though they are very important to ..read more

Here’s a short series on women photographers from early in the history of the medium which I created for social media groups. 1. Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) Frances was well-connected – she got her first camera from George Eastman, and knew Theodore Roosevelt, Alfred Stieglitz et al. She built a very successful commercial practice, and was both a portraitist to the rich and famous and a documentarian with an eye for detail. Always interested in the process of photography, Frances was a very early user of colour film. She wrote a detailed article ‘What women can do with a camera‘ (189 ..read more