Jim A. Mortram (born 10 September 1971) is a British social documentary photographer and writer, based in

Dereham Dereham (), also known historically as East Dereham, is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of the England, English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A47 road, about west of the city of Norwich ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. His ongoing project using photography and writing, ''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. This work is published on his website, in a few zines published in 2013, and in the book ''Small Town Inertia'' (2017).

''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 A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

, where he lives, fifteen miles west of the city of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

. 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, homelessness, self-harm, mental illness, juvenile crime, and epilepsy", that Mortram believes are otherwise under-reported. Dave Stelfox wrote in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' 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 Christopher David Killip (11 July 1946 – 13 October 2020) was a Manx people, Manx photographer who worked at Harvard University from 1991 to 2017, as a Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies. Killip is known for his black and white imag ...

Publications

Publications by Mortram

*''Small Town Inertia.'' Liverpool: Bluecoat. With a poem by Jamie Thrashivoulou, "A Privatised Map of Deprivation", and essays by Paul Mason, "A Memento of the Dark Times", and Lewis K. Bush, "A War of Poverty". Hardback, 2017; . Paperback, 2018; .

Zines by Mortram

*''Electric Tears and All Their Portent.'' Southport:

Café Royal A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargile ...

, 2013. Edition of 150 copies.
Electric Tears and All Their Portent
' in the Café Royal Books archive. *''Living with Epilepsy.'' Southport: Café Royal, 2013. Edition of 150 copies.

' in the Café Royal Books archive. *''Small Town Inertia: Diary Entries.'' Southport: Café Royal, 2013. Edition of 150 copies. With a short text by

George Szirtes George Szirtes (; born 29 November 1948) is a British poet and translator from the Hungarian language into English. Originally from Hungary, he has lived in the United Kingdom for most of his life after coming to the country as a refugee at the ...

.
Small Town Inertia: Diary Entries
' in the Café Royal Books archive. **Second edition. Southport: Café Royal, 2022. *''Small Town Inertia: Diary Entries 2.'' Southport: Café Royal, 2022. With a short essay by

Michael Sheen Michael Christopher Sheen (born 5 February 1969) is a Welsh actor. After training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s with stage roles in ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1992), ''Don't Fool wi ...

.
Small Town Inertia: Diary Entries 2
' in the Café Royal Books archive.

Publications with contributions by Mortram

*''Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained.'' Oxford:

Focal Focal or FOCAL may refer to: *Focal (lexicographical website), an Irish lexicographical website *FOCAL (programming language), a programming language for the PDP-8 and similar machines * Focal (HP-41), for programming HP calculators * FOCAL (space ...

, 2014. By Grant Scott. . With contributions from Mortram, Alicia Bruce,

Peter Dench Peter Dench (born 23 April 1972) is a British photojournalist working primarily in advertising, editorial and portraiture. His work has been published in a number of books. Biography Dench was born and grew up in Weymouth, Dorset. He graduated f ...

, Chris Floyd, and Niall McDiarmid.

Solo exhibitions

*''Small Town Inertia,''

Bank Street Arts Bank Street Arts (BSA) was a contemporary art centre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and ...

, Sheffield, 2013; Photoville, New York City, 2013; Red Light Gallery, Norwich, 2013; Arts Centre,

Edge Hill University Edge Hill University is a campus-based public university in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England. The university, which originally opened in 1885 as Edge Hill College, was the first non-denominational teacher training college for women in England, befo ...

, Liverpool, 2014; Camden Image Gallery, Camden, London, 2014;

Side Gallery Side Gallery is a photography gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, run by Amber Film & Photography Collective. It opened in 1977 as Side Gallery and Cinema with a remit to show humanist photography "both by and commissioned by the group along with wo ...

, Newscastle, 2019

Awards

*2013: one of twenty photographers credited by the ''

British Journal of Photography The ''British Journal of Photography'' (BJP) is a magazine about photography, published by 1854 Media. It includes in-depth articles, profiles of photographers, analyses, and technological reviews. History The magazine was established in Liverpoo ...

'' as "Ones to Watch" in 2013

Notes

References

External links

''Small Town Inertia''
website *
Mortram at Documenting BritainSmall Town Inertia: portraits of a nation in need
– gallery of photographs at ''The Guardian''
What it’s like to live on the fringes of British society: Small Town Inertia
– Mortram describes how he works on ''Small Town Inertia,'' for ''Huck'' magazine, 2014
Mortram interview with United Nations of Photography, 2016
(16 minute video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mortram, Jim 1971 births Living people Photographers from Norfolk British portrait photographers Social documentary photographers British documentary photographers Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century British photographers