For seven years Jim Mortram photographed the lives of people in his community. He made their daily struggles visible, as they struggled through physical and mental problems and a failing social security system. Through his camera and their testimony Small Town Inertia shows their isolation and the loneliness in their daily lives.
Date: Tuesday 21st April
Time: 7pm (doors 6.30pm)
Location: Upstairs in the Gallery at Oriel Colwyn
"I’m firstly a principle unpaid carer for my Ma, I quit art school in the 90’s to return to the family home to look after her. About 15 years in I was loaned a camera & quickly discovered that what I wanted to do with the rest of my life was to amplify the stories of those within my local community that were enduring the pressures & stresses of policies that were punishing those of the epidermis of the community, especially policies like Austerity."
*NOTE: Due to Jim's circumstances and carer responsibilities, this Talk Photo will be via a live Zoom conversation and presentation in the gallery.
Jim Mortram's work covers difficult subjects such as disability, addiction and self-harm, but is always with hope and dignity and is a testimony to the strength and resilience of the people he photographs.
We exhibitited Jim's initial Small Town Inertia work as a part of our very first Northern Eye Festival back in 2017. It is still to this day one of our most talked about festival exhibitions.
His work covers difficult subjects such as disability, addiction and self-harm, but is always with hope and dignity. Small Town Inertia is a testimony to the strength and resilience of the people he photographs.
All participants know that they have been photographed, they know that they have spoken into Jim's microphone, all are collaborators, not and never subjects and all they profoundly wish is that their testimony will be heard. Paramount for Small Town Inertia, since its creation, has always been collaboration with his community and the amplification of their testimony. Mortram says "We don't live in a country where people have no voice, but people seldom listen and choose to look the other way."
Jim Mortram has worked with Image & Reality to redesign his first sold-out book, Small Town Inertia, adding never-seen-before photos and testimony. With these new photographs and testimonies, a new edition of the Small Town Inertia book is available for order now. Delivery from the printers is confirmed and orders will ship from February 20th, 2026.
Small Town Inertia 2 represents another seven years in people's lives in and around Dereham, the small town in Norfolk where Jim also lives. Governments have come and gone but for many of the individuals that Jim works with, nothing has changed. They are failed by austerity, their health, waiting lists and a social security system that doesn't work for those most in need.
It hasn't got better. What has changed is the urgency.
"Rich with passion and fire, but free of self-pity and misery - these poems, photographs and paragraphs take us into a world and a life that most of us are lucky enough not to know. But we should know, for this is a story of our fellow citizens trapped in a system that simply isn’t good enough. I urge you to take a look..." Sir Stephen Fry, July 2025
In Small Town Inertia 2 the boundaries between Jim's role as photographer and interviewer are blurred by his own involvement in the stories that he tells. Forced to self-isolate for 18 months during the COVID-19 lockdown (to protect two highly vulnerable parents and everyone else that features within their own stories) his own family chose to become a part of this account of neglect, isolation and fear.
Mortram says; "During Covid, I had to keep everyone safe. I kept in constant touch with everyone outside of our home by telephone or social media, checking in and making interviews whilst at home documenting my parents' mental collapse as they dealt with isolation and the repercussions of PIP assessments."
Small Town Inertia 2 depicts the ever-worsening consequences of a system that is punishing people that it should be helping. Cover to cover, it is filled with the testimony of participants in their own words. All they had to say and how they wanted to say it.
“These captured images are like ancestral cave drawings in a world that has been reduced to things we’d rather see as each of us now operates on our own and in silence through digital motion.” Jason Williamson, Sleaford Mods, July 2025
All participants know that they have been photographed, they know that they have spoken into Jim's microphone, all are collaborators, not and never subjects and all they profoundly wish is that their testimony will be heard.
There are glimmers of hope in their words, their endurance and advice born from wisdom only earned through experience of a society and system that chooses to ignore them.
These are dispatches from the front line of the marginalised.
"Small Town Inertia 2 is the rarest of human projects in the fact that it is just that…Mortram lives and breathes for his community and his commitment to the isolated and ignored voices he documents is, in my opinion, the most important work taking place in UK photography today. Mortram’s work is a rare gift and I for one know that he cares more for the people involved in Small Town Inertia than he does for any compliment or plaudits from the wider arts and cultural arena. Mortram is the real deal." Jamie Thrasivoulou, July 2025