'After leaving many years ago I returned to find a country frozen in time. Whilst London had flourished the communities of the economic north were left behind. Cities once full of factories were filled with foodbanks, barbershops and fading hopes.’
In 2017 photographer
Merlin Daleman embarked on a journey through the economic North of the UK. Originally from the West Midlands, Daleman has lived in the Netherlands for most of his adult life. Driven by curiosity to understand the divisions in the UK made evident in the 2016 referendum, he returned to photograph. He revisited the previously familiar with the eyes of an outsider.
Daleman visited over 60 towns and cities from Aberdeen to Bangor, Blackpool to Belfast, and from Fife to Skegness. The photographs give the impression of Daleman as an observer, moving quickly and unobtrusively on foot through the streets. The images show the urban infrastructure of boarded-up shopfronts and rainy streets, canals and bright seafront businesses. The people captured as Daleman passes through are often shown demonstrating their humour,
warmth, fortitude and community.
The book’s essay by journalist Niels Posthumus draws upon an interview with Philip McCann, an economic geographer at the University of Manchester, and states that hardly any other European country experiences such a stark geographical divide between rich and poor as the UK. The economy of London—where national policy is formed—is larger than the economies of the next fourteen largest British cities combined. A sense of disparity and disenfranchisement felt by many in the economic North is confirmed by economics. It is against this backdrop that the Leave campaign thrived and many staged a ‘mutiny’.
‘My images tell the story of a fractured Britain. The towns and cities that voted for Brexit in 2016 were in my view an act of defiance against a system that ignored them. This is the Britain that London often forgets…. I seek to reflect the frustration and
resilience of those who have been left behind, highlighting the social and economic fractures that challenge the idea of a united United Kingdom. I strive to tell the story of a divided nation—and a story of resilience.’
Merlin Daleman
Merlin Daleman (b.1977) lives and works in the Netherlands. He attended South Devon College, Torquay, the University of Central England (now Birmingham City University) in the UK, and graduated from The Royal College of Art in The Hague, the Netherlands. He works as a freelance documentary photographer for leading Dutch publications, including NRC Handelsblad, Dagblad Trouw, Financieel Dagblad, and De Groene Amsterdammer. He is the recipient of awards including the Silver Camera awards for Documentary Photography in the Netherlands in 2008 and 2010 and had received grants from the EU Journalism Foundation Grant and the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship. Mutiny builds on his long-term projects, such as the new black lung epidemic in Kentucky, USA and exploring the lives of families separated by labour migration in Ukraine.
‘My images tell the story of a fractured Britain. The towns and cities that voted for Brexit in 2016 were in my view an act of defiance against a system that ignored them. This is the Britain that London often forgets…. I seek to reflect the frustration and resilience of those who have been left behind, highlighting the social and economic fractures that challenge the idea of a united United Kingdom. I strive to tell the story of a divided nation—and a story of resilience.’
- Merlin Daleman
