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City's fishing community featured in exhibition

Holly Phillips
BBC News
Alec Gill A black and white photograph of two boys playing on a street, kneeling on the pavement surrounded by toy soldiers and miniature buildings. One boy is focused on a small motorcycle toy. A tricycle with a windshield is behind them.Alec Gill
The exhibition explores the Hessle Road community between 1971 and 1988

An exhibition exploring Hull's Hessle Road fishing community begins this week.

The Hessle Roaders display will feature a collection of black and white photographs by photographer, author and psychologist Alec Gill.

It will include about 30 large-scale pictures from Dr Gill's Hessle Roader series, which featured in Hull's City of Culture celebrations in 2017.

The show will take place at Ron Dearing University Technical College between 17:00 and 18:00 BST every Monday to Thursday until 12 June.

Alec Gill A black and white photograph of two women, one of them elderly, standing outside a brick house. One is holding a cat, smiling, while the other sits with a cane, also smiling. A dog jumps up toward the cat.Alec Gill
A photograph Alec Gill took of a woman and her 84-year-old mother on Rosamond Street in 1978

The project focuses on the fishing community between 1971 and 1988.

Over that 15-year period, Dr Gill mapped the area and captured it on his Rolleicord twin-lens reflex camera, recording the working-class neighbourhood while it was on the brink of change.

Dr Gill, who was born in Hull's Old Town, said: "I would always wait for somebody to come along. As a psychologist, I'm interested in people.

"What I've tried to do during the 50 years of involvement with the photographs is to try to capture their community spirit, which is not easy in black and white photographs."

There are five themes in the show: children on the street, fish stock, life aboard a Hull trawler, the elderly of Hessle Road, and street life.

Alec Gill A black and white photograph of an elderly man sitting alone at a small table in a dimly lit room eating a meal. A birdcage with a budgie in it hangs nearby.Alec Gill
Alec Gill photographed George Allan, who lived in the neighbourhood, in 1980

Dr Gill will attend every session to talk to visitors about the community and the trawling industry.

His first show was at Hull's Posterngate Gallery in 1979. Now 78, he said this final exhibition would be "an emotional experience".

Over the years, the trawling industry faced increased pressures due to disputes over which waters fishermen were allowed to operate in, and that meant work was harder to come by.

The Hessle Road community – prominent for fishermen and their families – suffered as a result.

Alec Gill An elderly man in glasses and a light blue sweater standing beside a framed black and white photograph in a gallery. The photo shows an old Rix petrol station with pumps and brick buildings.Alec Gill
This will be Dr Gill's final exhibition

"Because they live so close to death, they had this zest for life," Dr Gill said.

The area was listed for regeneration in the 1980s, leaving its history only in memories and the photographs.

Entry to the sessions is free but booking is required due to limited space.

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