Monday, April 20, 2026
Simon Hill - Hon FRPS - President, Royal Photographic Society
The North Revisited
Marking the 60th anniversary of The Sunday Times Magazine 1965 Special Issue on ‘The North’, Arts Council England has provided the major funding for this year-long documentary project which builds on the work of John Bulmer FRPS, whose evocative images of the north of England, featured in the ‘65 Special Edition, became a cornerstone of British documentary photography.
Once synonymous with heavy industry, northern towns and cities are now leveraging a greater diversity of employment and are striving to become vibrant cultural hubs. They are embracing their rich industrial heritage and creating new communities and identities. Commercial innovation, the emergence of hi-tech industry, new retail, leisure, and visitor attractions, are leveraging economic growth.
This commission to produce ‘The North Revisited’ - awarded to a single photographer ... HPS Member and RPS President, Simon Hill HonFRPS – is the largest ever ACE-funded photography project documenting the north of England. More a ‘documentary’ than an ‘arts’ project, the ambition is to capture the evolving and contemporary identity of ‘The North’ through the unique vision of a single photographer.
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The project will create a national archive of over 4000 photographs and, as a homage to Bulmer’s pioneering colour work, it will be shot on Phoenix 200, an experimental 35mm colour film designed and manufactured in the north of England by Harman Technology. This ‘quirky’, grainy, high contrast, colour-saturated film provides an analogue aesthetic that simultaneously harmonises with Bulmer’s 1960 colour photographs while affording a unique character to this modern interpretation of what has become an iconic photographic legacy.
‘The North Revisited’ revisits the towns and cities photographed by Bulmer, plus over 20 other events and locations, to document this redefining of the North; recording and celebrating the diverse communities for which the northern counties are now home. But the project does not turn a ‘blind eye’ to the problems and challenges that still exist and with which so many former industrial communities continue to struggle.
For more information on the project visit: simonhillphotos.com/north
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