A North East photographer’s pictures of the moment Teesside’s steel heritage came crashing down has earned him a coveted place in the Royal Academy’s famous Summer Exhibition. PETER BARRON reports IT had dominated Teesside’s skyline for decades, but it took just 10 seconds for the Redcar blast furnace to be reduced to rubble in a controlled explosion that symbolised the end of a way of life. And for photographer James Hobson it was a moment in the history of the area that had to be captured and preserved.
Now, two of his photographs – named An Elegy and Foreboding – are being displayed on the walls of Burlington House, in Piccadilly, central London, as part of the world-famous Summer Exhibition staged annually by the Royal Academy of Arts. The prints are framed in steel, a nod to the steelworks, which closed in October 2015 with the loss of 1,700 jobs, devastating the local community. James also employs traditional methods, using film and printing methods established in the early 19th century.
“To me, the blast furnace was beautiful,” he says. “It represented the soul of the area – a monument to an industrial heritage that shaped so many people’s lives.” Measuring 40 x 30 inches, the photographs are part of an ongoing art project for 30-year-old James, who grew up in the village of Hurworth-on-Tees, 30 miles from Redcar.
He started visiting the South Gare – or Paddy’s Hole as it’s known to many – while he was studying photography at Darlington .