Biography
The Man Behind The Lens.
Mik Critchlow was a social documentary photographer based in the North East of England who worked on long term community-based projects for over forty years. The son of a miner, he has worked within the community with a deep-rooted empathy for the townsfolk, and the area he documents. Critchlow left high school in 1970 at the age of 15 years without academic qualifications and went straight into the workplace two days after leaving school, gaining full-time employment as a tailor’s trimmer at a local clothing factory. From there, he went straight into the Merchant Navy as a cabin boy and worked his way through the ranks to become a Steward/Cook, whilst being active within the National Union of Seamen. In 1977, he enrolled on a two-year course at his local College studying Art History and Graphic design as a mature student, it was while at college that he picked up a camera for the first time and immediately fell in love with the medium and process of photography.
Part of a mining family, Mik often referred to coal as being 'in our blood'. His family moved to Northumberland in the mid 1800s to work in the region's coal mines. Mik's grandfather worked at Woodhorn Colliery for 52 years, his father spent 45 years as a miner, and his two brothers also spent 25 years working underground. Until his death in 2023, Mik lived in Ashington, Northumberland.
Mik's legacy lives on through his images - for archive enquires, image licensing, and more get in touch.
Background/Inspiration
On seeing an exhibition of paintings in 1977 by 'The Ashington Group' (Pitmen Painters) a group of Ashington men brought together in 1934 by the Workers Educational Association for Art Appreciation classes, he realised the value of art as social document,
the visual representation of everyday life, by one’s own knowledge and personal experiences.
In the same year, he began a long-term photography project documenting his home town of Ashington Northumberland. The son of a miner, he has worked within the community with a deep-rooted empathy for the townsfolk, documenting the area and it’s people during a rapid period of social and environmental change.
Previous Artist Residencies Included:
Various Photographer/Artist Residencies Including:
Northern Arts/Arts Council - 'Artists In Education'
De Montfort University
Northumberland County Council
Durham County Council Arts Libraries Museums
Silloth On Solway Middle School Cumbria - Photographer In Residence
Coquet High School Amble - Photographer In Residence
Queens Hall Arts Centre Hexham - Documentary Photography
Riverbank Special School
Netherton Park Social Services Children's Assessment Centre
Alexandra County First School
Coates Endowed Middle School Ponteland Northumberland
Northumberland Libraries-Alnwick & Berwick Upon Tweed - ’Tomorrow's History’
Duchess High School Alnwick
Barndale Special School Alnwick
Alnwick Playhouse Darkrooms
Hadston Young Womens Group
Wansbeck Community Initiative Centre
Northumbria Probation Service
St. Benet Biscop High School-Bedlington
Northumberland College
4Arts Canterbury - 'Golf as Metaphor' - Status, Style & Land Ownership in the 90's
Helix Arts Newcastle - ISSP Northumberland 'My Take'
BAIT - 'The Share' - Guide Post CIU Social Club 2014 -15
Buddleia Arts Projects / bait - 'The Hirst' 2015 -17
Creative People and Places
Arts Council England
Previous exhibitions:
'Forever Amber' - Laing Art Gallery 2014, 'The Share' - Northern Rock Gallery 2014 , 'About The North - Imagined Dialogues' - Side Gallery 2018, 'Pitmen Painters Unseen' - Woodhorn Museum 2018, 'WORK+WORKERS' - Side Gallery 2019. 'Photo-North Festival' - Harrogate Conference Centre 2019,
'Coal Town' Woodhorn Museum 2021/22
On the anniversary of Mik's death, and to mark what would have been his 70th birthday, it was announced that a permanent gallery in his honour is to open at Woodhorn Museum, Northumberland.
The Coal Town Collection presents photographs made by social documentary photographer Mik Critchlow (1955–2023). Mik documented his hometown and community of Ashington over a 45-year period and personally selected these photographs for display at Woodhorn Museum.
Mik began this extraordinary long-term photography project in 1977, after seeing an exhibition by the Ashington Group of artists. “They recorded their lives with such honesty, painting the ordinary, the mundane, the everyday and put it all down on paper or canvas or hardboard. They showed me that ordinary people’s lives could be important and could be seen as art.” Mik Critchlow.
Mik’s work captures the end of the coal mining industry in Ashington and the immediate and longer-term impacts of the loss of the industry on the town’s people, places, and community. Mik described making photographs as ‘an act of remembrance’ and his work provides a poignant record of ordinary people and places across a time of major social, political, economic, and environmental change.
“After all these many years, I feel that I’m bringing these people back to life again, back home where they all belong.” Mik Critchlow, 2021.
The Mik Critchlow Coal Town Collection has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Mik Critchlow’s family, and through funding from Northumberland County Council and Arts Council England.