Ossett District Camera Club are excited to have the Bradford based photographer John Bolloten as one of our guest lecturers on Thursday, 15 October at 6.45pm for a 7pm start.
Address: The Coach House, Ossett War Memorial Community Centre, Prospect Road, Ossett, WF5 8AN
We would like to invite you along to what will be a fantastic lecture/presentation.
There will be a £8 charge at the door but I am sure it will be worth every penny.
We hope to see you there.
Karen – Club Secretary
All images copyright John Bolloten
John Bolloten – Subcultures on the Margins of Society – Part 2
John Bolloten is a British documentary photographer based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK, whose work is recognised for its uncompromising exploration of people and communities living on the margins of society. His distinctive documentary style is built on trust, long-term engagement, and close relationships with his subjects. Drawing on his own life experiences and his work in harm reduction services, Bolloten approaches difficult social issues with empathy rather than judgement, producing intimate photographs that reveal lives often overlooked or misunderstood.
Much of Bolloten’s reputation rests on his sustained documentation of Bradford, UK where he lives. His landmark project Nothing To See Here (2017) examined homelessness, addiction, poverty, and social exclusion in the city, becoming one of his best-known bodies of work. He followed this with Love Story (2019), an intensely personal study of the relationship between two people living with heroin and crack addiction. More recently, This Is Not a Life, It’s Just an Existence (2025) expanded this exploration by combining photographs with life stories from people affected by long-term drug use, creating one of his most significant documentary projects to date.
Alongside his work in Bradford, Bolloten has documented a wide range of subcultures and hidden communities both in Britain and abroad. His projects include Blood Brothers, an immersive study of bare-knuckle pit fighting; North Guerillas, documenting an illicit cannabis-growing community in Yorkshire; Generation Grime, focused on the grime and battle-rap scene in northern England; Gladiators, an inside look at cockfighting in the Philippines; and Tbilisi Raw, an examination of football ultras and right-wing skinheads in Georgia. Across these diverse subjects, his photographs emphasise participation, access, and authenticity rather than spectacle.
Bolloten has independently published a number of photobooks and his work has been exhibited at a number of festivals and galleries in the UK. His photographs have earned recognition for their honesty and social engagement. However, he remains relatively unknown within the UK as the photography establishment largely does not feature contemporary documentary work that reflects the honest realities and challenges of British life and society.
