Martin Jenkinson: Industrial strife and Sheffield life captured

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Picket wearing a joke police helmet talking to officers without identification numbers at OrgeaveImage source, Martin Jenkinson Image Library
Image caption,

This picture was taken at Orgreave, near Rotherham, in 1984 during the miners' strike

Powerful images of industrial strife and everyday life in South Yorkshire in the 1980s have gone on display.

Former steelworker Martin Jenkinson picked up his camera when he was made redundant in the late 1970s.

He went on to capture memorable moments during the 1984 miners' strike - among them a striking miner wearing a toy police helmet in front of a line of officers at Orgreave.

Another taken the same day shows the arrest of National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill.

Image source, Martin Jenkinson Image Library

Despite his lack of formal training as a photographer Jenkinson's pictures chronicled the decline of the steel and coal industries.

Image source, Martin Jenkinson Image Library

Louisa Briggs, the exhibition's curator said: "He was really capturing Sheffield at the point it was changing, so the industry that had been the mainstay of the city for so long was in decline.

"He was trying to show that in his photographs."

Image source, Martin Jenkinson Image Library
Image source, Martin Jenkinson Image Library

Jenkinson also photographed Sheffield's people, including Maxine Duffus, who was South Yorkshire's first black, female bus driver in 1982.

"He said 'I am going to take this Maxine, just pretend I'm not here," she recalled.

"I think is that really me? I was so young and the people that got on the buses they were older than me, thinking probably 'can she do it?'

Image source, Martin Jenkinson Image Library

Some of the city's now long-gone landmarks - including the famous Hole in The Road - were also captured on film.

Image source, Martin Jenkinson Image Library
Image source, Martin Jenkinson Image Library

Justine Jenkinson, the photographer's daughter and archivist, said: "He liked trying to do things from a different angle. I know it's my dad but they are good.

"He was capturing something he really believed in and you can tell."

Ms Jenkinson has given up her job to manage the archive and find images by her father that have not been widely seen.

He died in 2012 leaving a chronicle of South Yorkshire in the Martin Jenkinson Image Library, external.

Who We Are: Photographs by Martin Jenkinson is on show at Weston Park, Sheffield until 14 April.

The story of Martin Jenkinson is to be shown on BBC One's Inside Out on Monday, 11 February at 19:30 and will be available on the iPlayer after broadcast.

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