Seen but not heard

You'd think it would be a no-brainer that if you were commissioned to write an article on the barriers facing working-class photographers, you might actually start by talking to some of them. But no - they're conspicuous by their absence from Lanre Bakare's piece for the Guardian.

Bakare's interviewees are sympathetic, for sure - but, as is all too often the way with these things, those who are at the heart of the matter find themselves spoken for, rather than given a platform of their own. Would it have been too difficult to ask the likes of Jim Mortram or Joanne Coates - both of whom are vocal on social media about the struggles of working-class artists - about their own personal experiences? 

The mainstream media, evidently, represent one such barrier. Another, inevitably, is financial viability. As Bakare implies, the market for such work is much smaller than it was in the era of Bert Hardy, who was able to sell images to publications like Life and Picture Post, which had huge circulations.

For those who lack independent means or professional family backgrounds, then, external sources of funding are essential. However, as noted by Paul Sng - whose superb documentary Tish is now available on iPlayer, prompting Bakare's piece - in many cases assistance is required merely to access that support. Such assistance - and indeed help of any kind - is highly unlikely to be forthcoming from a Tory government that has just announced plans to slash funding for university creative arts courses.

The difficulties don't merely revolve around money and politics, though; the art world is also to blame. Sng's film makes clear that Tish had an innate raw talent but lacked self-confidence, needing to be convinced that her photos had artistic value outside her immediate circle. As Johny Pitts tells Bakare, his current touring exhibition After The End Of History: British Working Class Photography 1989-2024 features artists who "haven't been given either a chance, haven't conformed to upper-middle-class notions of what good taste is, or simply haven't had the chance to build a network within that world". The onus is on cultural gatekeepers to do better too.