Louisa Briggs, Exhibitions & Display Curator at Museums Sheffield said:
“Martin Jenkinson had an extraordinary ability to convey the inherent humanity in the subjects he covered. His images are both a powerful document of the events that have shaped us and a moving reminder of the experiences that we each have in common. We’re hugely grateful to Martin’s family for allowing us the opportunity to create this exhibition, the first major retrospective of his work, at Weston Park Museum.”
Louisa Briggs, Exhibitions & Display Curator at Museums Sheffield said:
“Martin Jenkinson had an extraordinary ability to convey the inherent humanity in the subjects he covered. His images are both a powerful document of the events that have shaped us and a moving reminder of the experiences that we each have in common. We’re hugely grateful to Martin’s family for allowing us the opportunity to create this exhibition, the first major retrospective of his work, at Weston Park Museum.”
For over four decades Sheffield-based photojournalist Martin Jenkinson (1947–2012) chronicled the drama and detail of our everyday lives. This autumn, a new exhibition at Weston Park Museum is set to celebrate his remarkable career. Who We Are: Photographs by Martin Jenkinson is the first major retrospective of Jenkinson’s work, bringing together over 80 of his most compelling images.
The exhibition will also feature a range of Jenkinson’s affectionate, insightful images of everyday life in his adopted home city. His photographs of Sheffield present an often moving, sometimes humorous portrait of the city and its people. Whether documenting Sheffield’s industry and those who worked in it, its landscapes, or the familiar faces that have given it its character over the years, Jenkinson’s work offers an evocative window onto the city’s past. Amongst the works on display in the exhibition will be a portrait of Maxine Duffus, South Yorkshire Passenger Transport’s first black woman bus driver, an image of the beloved lost city landmark, the Hole in the Road, and a impactful photograph of 1,500 people queuing to apply for 50 jobs at a new Sheffield restaurant in 1983.
Jenkinson’s talent for capturing the spirit of a place and its people was not limited to South Yorkshire. Who We Are will present a selection of the reportage images Jenkinson created on his travels, each articulating the experiences of his subject with candour and sensitivity. Works featured in the exhibition include a 1982 image of a butcher’s of shop in a Palestinian refugee camp and a mother feeding a reluctant child seen from a window in Italy.
Jenkinson’s work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Liverpool and the National Coal Mining Museum. In 2001, he worked with Turner-prize winning artist, Jeremy Deller, to document Deller’s acclaimed re-enactment of the strike action at Orgreave. Following Jenkinson’s death in 2012, his work continues to resonate with people far and wide. The images in this, the first major exhibition of his work, have been selected in partnership with his daughter, Justine, who now manages his sizeable photographic archive.
Justine Jenkinson said:
“We are really grateful for this opportunity for Martin’s work to be recognised. While including some of his best-known and most acclaimed photographs from his industrial and political archive, the exhibition also demonstrates other important aspects of his work. These images show the breadth of Martin’s interest in people and depict their everyday lives in photographs that are moving, imaginative and artistic.”
Louisa Briggs, Exhibitions & Display Curator at Museums Sheffield said:
“Martin Jenkinson had an extraordinary ability to convey the inherent humanity in the subjects he covered. His images are both a powerful document of the events that have shaped us and a moving reminder of the experiences that we each have in common. We’re hugely grateful to Martin’s family for allowing us the opportunity to create this exhibition, the first major retrospective of his work, at Weston Park Museum.”
