Portfolio

Body Builders was a commission for a local body builder. After taking the photographs I was paid to take. I took it upon myself to look at the body builders from a different prospective. Not looking at sculptured physique but tried to capture the tense and intense expressions. Having learned taijiquan which is a lot to do with being relaxed, this was the totally opposite

In Twilight, Jonathan returned to another part of his own history: subcultures.
Having been a punk himself, he revisited the world of punks, goths, mods, rockers and other groups
that once formed a visible part of the streets around Hebden Bridge, Halifax and Todmorden.
When Jonathan was young, these different tribes could be seen gathering together in large numbers.
Today, such groups are less visible in everyday life, often coming together only for particular events or
concerts.
The work therefore exists between past and present. The ghostly figures suggest the memory of the
subcultures Jonathan remembers, while the contemporary subjects occupy the present. Photographing
them at twilight further reinforces this sense of transition — a moment between light and darkness,
memory and reality, past and present.
The work also carries a tribute to Sophie Lancaster, whose murder in 2007 became a devastating
reminder of the prejudice and violence that can be directed towards people because of how they look or
the subcultures with which they identify.

Trendies, bickers, punks and mods. Pubs for farmers, the middle class, the working class and the classless.
Hippies spouting love peace, and anti-capitalism, whilst flipping empty properties for a profit.
Kids growing up not knowing who their parents were. Police that would give you a kicking because they didn't like the way you looked. Out of towners coming for gigs and fights. Drug-fuelled parties. Getting totally wasted. Sexual promiscuity in abundance. Everyone knowing everyone and everything that was going on. Young adults that were screwed up, fed up and pissed off. No wonder the suicide rate was so high.
That’s how Jonathan remembers Hebden Bridge.


THIS IS NOT A POEM
These are a collection of words that have a connection to the images, that surfaced whilst Jonathan was running barefoot over the hills of Hebden Bridge. The style, grammar, and punctuation mirror his disinterest in formal education and echo the no-rules ethos of contemporary photography.

A PICTURE POSTCARD
My hometown is not as it seams.
A pretty little place where there is lots to see.
Lots of caffe's bars and boutiques.
Craft shops, gift shops on cobbled streets.
A music venue for bands, raves stand up comics, open mic and private parteez
Surrounding country side for walks and hikes, canal towpaths, ideal for bikes.
But if you look beneath the surface its not what it seems.
There's boarded up a buildings, abandoned mills. Teenager's on the park popping pills.
Gummy's ket weed and coke.
Bottles of booze, it's no joke.
Suicides, murders, violent crime. It's a difficult place for the youth to shine.
I've lived here from being a lad.
I've had anxiety, depression and suicidal intention.
I've took drugs, drank booze I had nothing to lose.
But don't get me wrong it's not all bad.
When the sun is shining and buskers are out you'll see the odd local out and about.
The town is thriving its busy as ever.
Weekend tourists, hen does stag does and tv dramas.
But stray from the facade to see what i see. My home town is not what it seems.
You don't have to go far believe you me theres buildings in the centre with lots of graffiti.
It's scribbled on walls, on the phone box, lamp posts, pillars and doors.
There's fenced of areas you can't ignore.
Bushes, brambles, flowers and trees, encroaching nature to disguise the sleaze.
Overflowing bins from the night before spilling out strewed across the street. Dog shit bags at your feet.
Iv'e lived here for 50 years seen lots of changes and lots of tears.
Seen people come and people go.
Seen country lanes waist deep in snow.
The towns been cleaned up. Buildings sand blasted, some knocked down and some have lasted.
It's a lovely place to come and see but stroll from the facade and see what i see.
This is my home town.


Jonathan's relationship with Hebden Bridge is also central to his practice.
Today, the town is widely recognised for its picturesque landscape, independent businesses and
distinctive atmosphere. But Jonathan remembers another Hebden Bridge — the town he grew up in,
where he knew the people and where people knew him and his family.
One day, sitting in a café in the town centre with his mother and brother, Jonathan realised that he no
longer recognised the majority of the people walking through the square. The town had changed, and
so had his relationship with it.
Hebden Bridge — A Picture Postcard Town looks beneath the surface of the picturesque image. Tourists
may see the architecture, cafés and landscape, but Jonathan's photographs draw attention to the
people who live within the town and to the less visible aspects of its identity.
The project becomes both a portrait of a place and a portrait of change.

Perhaps the most personal connection between Jonathan's past and present can be found in Plastered
Walls.
Having spent his working life as a plasterer, Jonathan combines the material world of his trade with his
passion for portraiture. The plastered wall becomes more than a backdrop. It represents his working life
and provides a physical connection between the person he was and the photographer he has become.
Using natural daylight entering from a side window, Jonathan creates carefully considered portraits
inspired by the qualities of traditional painting. The texture of the plaster and the simplicity of the
setting allow the subject to become the focus.
There is something deliberately circular about the work. The trade that Jonathan once regarded simply
as his occupation becomes part of his artistic practice. The plastered walls that surrounded his working
life are transformed into the backdrop for his portraits.
Across these bodies of work, Jonathan Foulger's photography is ultimately about people: who they are,
where they come from, how they are perceived and how places and societies change around them.
His work is neither entirely documentary nor entirely traditional portraiture. It sits somewhere between
the two — using the visual language of classical portraiture to tell contemporary stories.
Whether photographing homelessness, subcultures, local communities or individuals against the walls
he has spent a lifetime plastering, Jonathan approaches his subjects with curiosity, empathy and
respect.
The result is a body of work that is as much a portrait of a life as it is a portrait of the people and places
that have shaped it.

The Simon Community project became an opportunity for Jonathan to revisit some of the social and
political concerns that had shaped his youth. The unemployment, strikes, homelessness and social
divisions he had witnessed as a young punk had not disappeared. Decades later, many of the same
problems remained.
Jonathan spent several days living and working alongside the Simon Community, discovering that
homelessness was far more complex and widespread than he had previously understood. The people
he encountered were not simply defined by being homeless; they were individuals with their own
histories, personalities and experiences.