Jim Mortram

Jim Mortram

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Introduction Small Town Inertia Publications Solo exhibitions Award
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Biography

Introduction

Jim Mortram (born 10 September 1971), also credited as J. A. Mortram, is a British social documentary photographer and writer, based in Dereham, Norfolk. His ongoing project, Small Town Inertia, records the lives of a number of disadvantaged and marginalised people living near to his home, in order to tell stories he believes are under-reported. His photographs and writing are published on his website and in a few zines through Café Royal Books.

Small Town Inertia

Mortram began the Small Town Inertia website in 2006 with the "Market Town" stories. Its name is a reference to the market town of Dereham, where he lives, fifteen miles west of the city of Norwich in Norfolk. Through photography, his writing and the subject's own words, Mortram records the lives of the disadvantaged and marginalised, making repeated visits with a number of people living within three miles of his home. Small Town Inertia tells stories of "isolation, poverty, drug abuse, homelesness, self-harm, mental illness, juvenile crime, and epilepsy", that Mortram believes are otherwise under-reported.

Dave Stelfox wrote in The Guardian that "Mortram's rich, black-and-white images possess a timeless quality that invites easy comparison with the classic documentary work of such British photographers as Chris Steele Perkins, Paul Trevor and Chris Killip."

Publications

Zines by Mortram

  • Electric Tears and All Their Portent. Southport: Café Royal, 2013. Edition of 150 copies.
  • Living With Epilepsy. Southport: Café Royal, 2013. Edition of 150 copies.
  • Small Town Inertia: Diary Entries. Southport: Café Royal, 2013. Edition of 150 copies. With a short text by George Szirtes.

Publication with contribution by Mortram

  • Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained. Oxford: Focal, 2014. By Grant Scott. ISBN 978-0415717540. With contributions from Mortram, Alicia Bruce, Peter Dench, Chris Floyd, and Niall McDiarmid.

Solo exhibitions

  • Small Town Inertia, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield, January–February 2013.
  • Small Town Inertia, part of Photoville, New York City, September 2013.
  • Small Town Inertia, Red Light Gallery, Norwich, November 2013.
  • Small Town Inertia, Arts Centre, Edge Hill University, Liverpool, March 2014.
  • Small Town Inertia: Documentary & Portraits by J A Mortram, Camden Image Gallery, Camden, London, August–September 2014.

    Award

    • 2013: one of twenty photographers credited by the British Journal of Photography as "Ones to Watch" in 2013.