Though I have lived in London for 25+ years, I was born and raised in Blackburn – a large English town, within the County of Lancashire, and one of the first industrialised towns in the world. I served my photographic apprenticeship in a couple of local high street studios and spent time as a photographer for the Blackburn Museum.
I became increasingly bored with commercial photography, longing instead to explore its artistic side, and had become more involved in youth work and community arts. I carried a camera with me everywhere – and I mean everywhere. Mike Millward, Curator of Blackburn Museum at the time, commented upon the fact that he would often see me, in the background, of various photographs that appeared, depicting local events, in papers such as ‘The Lancashire Evening Telegraph‘.
And so it was that Blackburn became the subject of a ten year photographic project. It was always my intention that the finished piece be an intimate, personal interpretation of life within the town of my birth, rather than a tourist guide, and a chronicle of the effects that the political climate, of that time, had upon it.
The initial phase saw a series of photographs produced between 1979 and 1985. The images created, during this six year period, formed part of a touring exhibition, funded by both ‘The North West Arts Council’ and ‘Blackburn Borough Council’, entitled ‘Blackburn a Town and Its People’ This part of the project was first shown, in 1985, at The Lewis Textile Museum in Blackburn, England, the exhibition being opened by former Government Minister, and Blackburn’s constituency M.P., Jack Straw before touring various venues within the UK.
I continued to photograph Blackburn, adding to the original body of work, until 1989, when I left the town to go to University, to form a consistent 10 year study of the town.
In 2015 I returned to the photographs and embarked upon a long term project to digitise, restore and archive the original negatives.
In 2018 ‘Blackburn a Town and its People’ was again shown to the public as a retrospective exhibition held at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery. You can see details about this show, along with a few image samples, by following the link here.
On the morning of Saturday 10th February 2018 I was interviewed on BBC Radio Lancashire’s John Gilmore and Nishma Hindocha Show about the ‘Blackburn a town and its people’ exhibition. You can listen to the interview by following the link here.
The Lancashire Telegraph ran an article on the show and that can be read by following this link.
The prints, within this exhibition, were then donated to the town and entered the Museums collection. At some point it is my intention to donate the entire catalogue, of over 900 images to the town, and I am currently discussing this with the Museum and other relevant bodies.
So much for the history, now for the exciting news.
Earlier this year I was made aware that some of the photographs, from ‘Blackburn a town and its people’ were being posted in a Facebook group entitled ‘Blackburn and district in the past‘. Seeing that they were attracting favourable attention, I joined the group and posted more images from the archive. I was overwhelmed by the response and, being asked what I hoped for the future of the images, I talked about hoping to one day get a selection of them published in book form.
Nothing could prepare me for what was to follow…
Barry Gavahan, Managing Director of “DES Group“, came forward and offered sponsorship to fund the work towards the publication of a book of ‘Blackburn a town and its people’ As stated previously, it has long been a dream to see the work in book form and I now have that opportunity and I could not be more grateful.
DES Group is a company that believes in giving back to the community. This is borne out by the companies involvement with a number of community sponsorships. They actively support the ‘Mill Hill St Peters Junior Football Team‘ and the ‘Hyndburn Academy‘ (formerly ‘Norden High School’, Rishton).
More recently DES Group have been offering support to a project called ‘LADs UNITED‘ which deals with an often neglected and underfunded area – Men’s physical and mental well-being. ‘LADs UNITED‘ was set up by a local man, Adam Gardner, to ensure men of all ages, sizes and abilities have a support network, especially important during this ongoing COVID19 crisis. This group started with half a dozen men with “jumpers for goalposts” in April 2020 and now has over 100 signed to the group. They meet on Monday and Friday evenings and spend the time training and playing football. The time spent together allows for, what Barry describes as, ‘a bit of a banter’, encouraging those involved to open up and discuss any problems, share concerns and offer each other moral support. In addition, the group speak, on a regular basis, via social media to offer further support to anyone struggling with their mental health.
What the generous support and sponsorship, from DES Group, has allowed me to do is further expand the Blackburn project in several ways. Firstly, it has given me the opportunity to go even further with the restoration, repair and archiving of the original negatives. The 35mm negatives have especially benefited from this additional work.
And secondly, it has allowed work to go forward in identifying many of the people depicted within the photographs. Where possible, I am making contact with many of those pictured and asking if they would be kind enough to contribute a short paragraph of text to go alongside their image. This both updates and, perhaps more importantly, adds a deeply personal touch to the finished work.
The response so far has been tremendous. Many have not seen the photographs before and I have been able to pass on digital copies as keepsakes. In some cases it has turned out that this is only photograph they have of a departed loved one.
There is still much to do and, whilst the Covid situation has slowed some things down, as it has for so many, I am continuing the work, made possible by the support of DES Group, on further restoring the images and identifying, contacting and collating written material for the book.
I will be using both this blog and my YouTube channel to post updates…
…so watch this space.
Christopher John Ball 
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