Bristol first registered on my radar when a friend turned up to our college darkroom with two new CDs: Portishead’s Dummy (1994) and Tricky’s Maxinquaye (1995). The albums, which served to define the Bristol-born genre trip-hop – an enigmatic fusion of hip-hop and electronica – conjured an image of a place that was both woozily atmospheric and curiously edgy. And one distinct from the manically hyperactive metropolis of mid-1990s New York, where I was living.
In my mind, Bristol was slow-paced, unpretentious and, at times, mournful yet pulsating with an intense creative energy that was dynamic, multicultural and politically charged. More than 20 years later, I was invited to develop a postgraduate MA in photography at the University of the West of England. I discovered a place that confirmed and exceeded these hazy expectations; a city with a fascinating complexity and burgeoning photo culture that stretched far beyond the paltry limits of my teenage imagination.
Straddling the River Avon in the south-west of England, Bristol developed into an important trading port in the 12th century. In the 1500s, it became a launching point for early exploratory voyages. By the 1600s, it was also well- known for the trade of illicit goods, but ultimately the city built its substantial wealth through the transatlantic slave trade. By the 1730s, an average of 39 slave ships left Bristol each year, a number that grew over the following decades. As slavery was gradually abolished, the city continued its economic expansion through the importation of tobacco. In the late-1900s, Bristol’s maritime industries went into decline, and the economy turned to aerospace, information technology, media and culture. Many of its post-industrial sites have been regenerated into cinemas, restaurants, artist studios and cultural institutions, where a vibrant and supportive creative community thrives.
Despite its deeply problematic history, today Bristol is one of the most progressive and politically active cities in the UK. This year’s Kill the Bill protests, and last summer’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations, culminating in the toppling of the Edward Colston statue, are recent examples. Alongside such activism, there is a robust arts scene with a longstanding history of experimentation – Richard Long and Banksy, among many others, hail from Bristol. The city’s photographic culture finds its origins in the 1970s, with Jem Southam and Paul Graham. While working day jobs at the Arnolfini gallery and elsewhere, the pair built and ran a cooperative gallery and communal darkroom: Photographers Above the Rainbow. It was there, in the cramped rooms above the Rainbow Cafe (now the vegan Eden Cafe), that contemporary British photo culture first flourished, and colour photography gained a foothold within British art. Over the following decades, the city became home to many more photographers, including Garry Fabian Miller, Peter Fraser and Martin Parr.
Almost 50 years later, Bristol is experiencing a photographic renaissance. Artists flock to the city, and in the last five years alone, a plethora of new galleries, festivals, publishers, educational programmes and community-minded initiatives have established a home here. Little did I know, back when I was agitating my developing trays to the slow-and-low tempos of this city, that my lifelong obsession with photography would eventually lead me to Bristol. At such an exciting and important moment, and among such a wonderful community of people who share this obsession, I am forever grateful that it did.