Small Town Inertia

May 18, 2023

Jim Mortram’s Small Town Inertia is an ongoing project which shines a light on the real life consequences the so-called “A-word” is continuing to have on communities, over a decade since its introduction. It wreaks havoc on the most vulnerable in our society and it targets those who can least afford basic necessities.

Recent Stories

Butterflies and Caterpillars
The body of work takes a closely intimate look at the contemporary drag scene in the United States. It’s a photographic examination that looks at the notions of identity and how we construct the self in a space different from society’s pre-established gender-specific roles and expectations.
Ardelle Schneider
The Invisible Wall
Paco Poyato brings us back a few decades to the times when the Berlin Wall divided Berlin and, subsequently, Germany into two parts — East and West.
Paco Poyato
A Rural Lifeline
Joanne Coates is a photographic storyteller from a working-class background. Based between Yorkshire and Scotland, she depicts everyday stories with a documentary approach. Apart from this, Coates has also done work in the commercial sector with clients including the BBC, Vice, Financial Times, The Guardian, and more. Coronavirus: A Rural Lifeline in North Yorkshire shows how rural communities, away from the hub of the big city, managed to cope with isolation when social distancing became the n
Joanne Coats
Smoking Chefs
Jan Enkelmann lives and works in London where he spends his time observing people. Many would think that photographers, especially street photographers, go to the street, take countless images and that’s it, job done. I would argue that it takes much more than that — many image-makers would spend more
Jan Enkelmann
Azerbajiani Stories
In Azerbaijani Stories the photographer Onur Tatar had created what he calls composite portraits. These are the stories of ten people from Azerbaijan combined with their portraits and images of places of significance. As Tatar says, topography, or the arrangement of both natural and artificial physical features of an area,
Onur Tatar
Case 3181
Nieves Mingueza is a Spanish documentary photographer whose work bridges the gap between the conceptual, personal and political. She often works as a multimedia artist using images as well as text, collage, video and installation. In her own words, Mingueza “explores and activates the archives to address social and gender
Nieves Mingueza
Southtown
Tommy Lee Grimmer is a young photographer based in Great Yarmouth, East England, which is, in fact, the part of the country which is the furthest East. His project Southtown explores his hometown, the area where he grew up, its physical environment and community as well as the change of his perspective from a child to now an adult. © Tommy Lee Grimmer | SouthtownThe text accompanying Southtown is nostalgic and evocative of innocent childhood — Kickpost, a game similar to hide and seek, late ni
Tommy Lee Grimmer
Balaganza
A spotlight on the drag queens in the only gay bar in Lithuania. Forcedly hidden from the public eye in the post-Soviet country, these performances seem too deliberately shocking for the part of the society.
Milda Vysniauskaite
Legacy
Legacy is a response to the impact of the year of City of Culture 2017 in her hometown of Hull, within the city’s spaces and places. The work is a synthesis of careful research done within the various communities and organizations involved that were affected during and after the impact of the year of culture.
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The Steel Plant Mothers
Wilfully ignoring the pleas of the local and national population, the Ilva plant, Europe’s largest steel plant, is portrayed as prioritising profit over people's lives.
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mnngful Originals

mnngful Members

Lewis Greener
UK
,
London

Geordie in London. Youth and community worker who takes photos and film. Mainly b&w just because thats what darkroom I've got access too.

Tommy Lee Grimmer
UK
,
Norfolk

Photographer based in Norfolk, East of England. Predominantly working on short and long-term personal projects as well as accepting regular commissions of all sizes and budgets. His work specialises in representative documentary, personal identities and the relationships we form with different aspects of our lives.

Edward Thompson
UK
,

Documentary photographer focused on various subjects over the years covering environmental issues, socio-political movements, subcultures, everyday life and the consequences of war. He had a life-changing experience with an early apprenticeship with the Russian photographer Sergey Chilikov, whom he met at the Arles Photography Festival in 2001. That summer Ed stayed with Sergey in Paris and learnt the value of shooting everyday life, eating fried fat and drinking red wine. Sergeys friend Gueorgui Pinkhassov told him how photographing the everyday can allow you to touch at something great. And it did.

Floriana Avellino
IT
,

Hussain Ali
UK
,
London

British-Iraqi documentary photographer based in London. His work is rooted in our connection to the land and social identity. He is interested in documenting stories that inspire us to consider our relationship with nature and wildlife.

Fiona Neil
UK
,
Moreton In Marsh

When receiving an old fashioned Canon camera at 16 I realised the power of showing people different perspectives of the world, documenting them with photography. I am passionate and dedicated about producing emotional, resourceful content that can educate and document the world for people.

Stefanos Kouratzis
CY
,
Nicosia

Multidisciplinary photographer living and working in Cyprus since 2000. At the age of 13, he develops a strong interest in Photography when he was handed a Kodak Instamatic. He loved so much the way that light was captured on film that he decided he wants to be a photographer. Due to developing and printing costs, he starts drawing rough sketches, prior shooting, and experimenting with different medium sizes, cameras and techniques. His works can be found in books and private collections in Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Brazil.

Francesca Cao
IT
,
Milano

Francesca Cao has been published and exposed in Europe and United States. In her personal work constantly looks for new ways of telling stories to stimulate the aesthetic reflection on photography, and emotionally move the viewer. Her first book Temporary Life is published by Postcart in 2020.

Annie Y Saldana
PR
,
San Juan

Fine Art photographer, educator, curator. Founder at PRISMA Art Projects.

Onur Tatar
TR
,
Çanakkale

Photographer based in Turkey, was born in 1984 in Canakkale. In 2008, he graduated from the Department of Photography of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Dokuz Eylul University (DEU) and with a Master of Arts degree at the DEU Institute of Fine Arts Department of Photography in 2021. Onur completed his PhD in Ege University Social Sciences Institute Radio Television and Film Department in which his thesis Hypertext and the Changing Aesthetics in Photographic Art. He works as an associate professor at the Adnan Menderes University Radio and Television Department, teaches photography and aesthetics. His artistic works have been exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions.

Marko Risovic
RS
,
Belgrade

Documentary photographer based in Belgrade. After working for years in traditional photojournalism outlets, he became a freelancer in 2010. Since then he has concentrated on long-term projects about youth, social (in)justice and distribution of power in the Balkans. Marko is interested in intimate narratives about vulnerable social groups and individuals that reflect a wider social discourse. He believes that the language of photography storytelling still can shape the perception of the wider population and decision-makers, thus contributing to the continuous search for a better, more equal and sustainable world. Marko was chosen as one of the participants in the World Press Photo Masterclass for young photographers from Southeastern Europe in 2010. He has been a regular contributor to National Geographic Serbia magazine since 2007, and a contributing photographer to The New York Times and Le Monde for years. Marko is founder of the Serbian photo collective Kamerades and a member of The Association of Serbian Applied Artists and Designers (ULUPUDS). He holds an MA degree in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the University of the Arts in London. Marko is currently in the Mentor Program of VII photo agency.

Ashima Yadava
US
,
San Franscisco

Photographer based in San Franscisco, California Born in New Delhi, India, Ashima now lives in San Francisco, California. She works in digital and analog methods including medium, and 4x5 large format. With the camera as her conduit, Ashima believes in art as a means to social activism and reform. Her work is rooted in documentary practice with a keen focus on issues of gender equality, race, and social justice. Like If Hands Could Speak, which deals with domestic violence in the South Asian community in the Bay Area.

Jim Mortram
UK
,

Social Documentary Photographer and the creator of these photo stories: Small Town Inertia.

Louis Sartori
UK
,
London

Independent Photojournalist and Writer focusing on matters of cultural obscurity, documenting groups/spaces on the borders of popular recognition.

Sabrina Jeblaoui
DE
,
Berlin

Documentary and street portrait photographer based in Berlin. Started discovering the role electronic and techno music played within the party scene in Berlin since she moved there in 2017 and has decided to take photographs of people in front of clubs. NachtClubsBerlin is Sabrina’s first complete photo project. It gathered more than 28K followers on its Instagram account and caught the attention of several magazines, newspapers, as well as TV channels such as ZDF MorgenMagazin, Tagesspiegel, Ze.tt, Mix Mag, Vice, and more.

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