251 - Mike Abrahams

British photographer Mike Abrahams has worked as a freelance photographer for over 40 years having become renowned for his sensitive eye in documenting the lives of ordinary people often in extraordinary situations.

In 1981 he was a cofounder of Network Photographers the Internationally renowned picture agency and his work has taken him around the world. His photographs have been published in all the major international news media.

In 2024, Mike’s much anticipated book This Was Then, was published by Bluecoat Press and has been described as a lyrical portrait of humanity in adverse circumstances. It features photographs taken from 1973 to 2001 in cities from Liverpool to Glasgow. Blackburn to Bradford, Northern Ireland to the coalfields of Kent and London.

Mike’s work on Faith - A Journey with Those Who Believe, published in 2000, was the culmination of five years work, documenting the extremes and passion of Christian devotion throughout fourteen countries. Awards for this work included the World Press Photo Award in 2000, and the book Faith designed by Browns, was a finalist in the Design Week - Editorial Design: Books. It has been widely exhibited throughout the UK and Europe.

Colin Jacobson, picture editor of The Independent Magazine, described Mike’s body of work from the conflict in Northern Ireland and published in the book Still War, in 1989 as "Documentary photography at its best - imaginative, comprehensive, confident and concerned". His coverage of the troubles in Northern Ireland was the subjects of a Television documentary Moving Stills.

Other important assignments have included coverage of the division of Cyprus, Migrant labour in Southern Africa, the Intifada in the Occupied Territories, the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the rise in the influence of the religious in Israeli politics, the Cult of Assad in Syria, Northern Ireland and documenting Another Britain.

In episode 251, Mike discusses, among other things:

• Discovering the darkroom at 12
• Growing up in post-war Liverpool
• The infamous Toxteth Riots of the early 80s
• Network Photographers agency
• The story of the IRA bombing
• His interest in religious ceremony
• Going back to his archive of British work for the new book, This Was Then
• The impetus behind it
• The sustainability of of a long-term career
• Personal work that he is still doing

Referenced:

• Eugene Smith
• David Douglas Duncan
• Larry Burrows
• Tim Page
• Network Photographers
• John Sturrock
• Mike Goldwater
• Judah Passow
• Chris Davies
• Laurie Sparham
• Steve Benbow
• Martin Slavin
• Barry Lewis
• Red Saunders
• Sid Shelton
• Roger Hutchins
• Chris Killip
• Daniel Meadows
• Peter Marlow
• Peter Van Agtmael

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“You can go here, there and everywhere, and I have travelled a lot and it’s been interesting and fascinating, but you’re always the outsider coming in. You don’t really know the story. It’s glamorous, it’s exotic, it’s fascinating, but I think it’s much harder to photograph your home turf. You come to it with quite an honest perspective. It’s the land you’re living in, you’re conscious of the differences in the country between the north, south, east and west, the regions... it’s kind of embedded in you, the differences.”

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