02/09/2025
John Bolloten: Margins
Abject Gallery, 27 Fawcett St, Sunderland, SR1 1RE
Until 20 September 2025
Gallery open Wed - Sat, 12:00pm - 4:00pm
John will be at Abject Gallery on Saturday 6 September 12-4pm if visitors would like to talk to him about the work.
There is an ARTIST TALK on Saturday 20 September, 2pm.
John Bolloten is a documentary photographer based in Bradford, UK celebrated for his compelling and unfiltered exploration of social and cultural issues. His work is deeply rooted in capturing the raw realities of marginalised communities, often focusing on themes like addiction, poverty, and urban life.
Bolloten's approach is characterized by his intimate connection with his subjects, enabling him to portray their lives with authenticity and empathy. Through his lens, Bolloten sheds light on overlooked narratives, using photography as a powerful medium for social commentary and change. His photography doesn't just document—it challenges viewers to confront uncomfortable truths and recognise shared humanity.
His work primarily focuses on documenting people and subcultures that exist on the margins of society. He is most known for his five years of work with he**in and crack users in Bradford. His resulting book, “This is Not a Life, It’s Just an Existence”, was published in January 2025 and was officially launched at Photo North Festival in Leeds in April 2025.
Other books by John include “Bradford Street” (2014), “Belgrade” (2015), “Shabash” (2016), "Nothing to See Here" (2017), “Field of Broken Dreams” (2018), "Love Story" (2019), “Gladiators” (2020), “Margins” (2021), "North Guerillas" (2022), "Words are Weapons" (2023), "Tbilisi Raw" (2023), "Margins 2" (2024), "This is Not a Life, It's Just an Existence (2025) and "Not Living, Just Existing (2025).
This exhibition, "Margins", is a retrospective collection to date of John's major bodies of work. These are:
This is Not a Life, It's Just an Existence (2014-2019)
I arrived in Bradford in 1983 at the age of 18 to start a new life away from the problems I had with using drugs. It took me almost another five
years before I managed to completely stop taking illegal substances and start to get myself back into ordinary society. Then one must take each day at a time to begin to deal with the trauma and issues that the drugs block out and to simply manage the mundanity and problems of everyday life. Having my own lived experience helps to explains why I felt drawn to making these photographs between 2014 and 2019.
This work is about those at the very bottom of society living very chaotic lives and dealing with drug and alcohol dependence, homelessness, various traumas and mental health issues.
This is Not a Life, It’s Just an Existence is the third and final publication in a series that started with Nothing to See Here in 2017 and Love Story in 2019. This book spans the whole five years of work I made amongst this drug-using community and includes eighteen life stories. This testimony is critical to gaining a deeper understanding of the people and their lives and is something that the photography itself cannot do on its own. These individuals are rarely, if ever, given a platform for their voices to be heard.
There are no easy solutions to radically change the lives of those caught up in the cycle of addiction and homelessness but everyone has the ability to recover and if society wills it then there is always a way, or at least a realistic opportunity.
Blood Brothers (2020- )
Blood Brothers is an ongoing documentary project photographed inside Spartan Bare Knuckle Fight Club, the only bare knuckle platform where fights take place inside an 8x8 foot hay bales pit.
Bare knuckle fights largely follow boxing rules except that no gloves are worn, just the wrist and part of the hands are wrapped.
Pit fighting is a brutal combat sport where it is said that the average fight only lasts around 30 seconds. Although injuries such as broken hands, broken fingers, broken jaws, fractured eye sockets and various lacerations are common, practitioners claim that is actually safe than regular boxing where one is repeatedly hit in the head with a blunt instrument.
This work will eventually be published into a book that will also contain interviews with fighters.
Born For This S**t (2020- )
Born For This S**t is an ongoing photo documentary project based in ring bare knuckle clubs such as Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, Bad To The Bone and Bare Fist Boxing Association.
Bare knuckle fights largely follow boxing rules except that no gloves are worn, just the wrist and part of the hands are wrapped.
Many bare knuckle fighters will have a preferred arena (pit or ring) but some will fight at both.
Tbilisi Raw (2022-23)
Tbilisi Raw is an extremely rare insight into Elita, Georgia’s most feared football hooligans and associated neo-nazi skinheads.
North Guerillas (2020-21)
North Guerillas is a one-year documentation of an outdoor cannabis farm in West Yorkshire.
Trap Life (2018- )
Trap Life looks at the criminal side of the drugs world featuring drug dealers, drug makers and gangs.
Ciggies, Spliffs and Red Bull (2023- )
After a wide documentation of the Bradford Sunday League in his book Field of Broken Dreams (2018), John Bolloten returned in 2023 to do an intimate view inside one team only, Red Lion. This work has all the excitement and drama of the highest levels of competitive football but with arguments and fights, fuelled by ci******es, cannabis and tins of red bull energy drinks.
No Rules (2024- )
These photographs are a documentation of the highly illegal violent disorder of the Levels of Violence Fight Club in South Yorkshire. No rules means no rules and fights are held at top secret locations.
Generation Grime (2017-22)
Generation Grime documents the grime scene mainly of West Yorkshire, in particular Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield. London grime has been extensively documented but as with many things, the north is often unnoticed or even forgotten about. This project consisted for five years of photography of Yorkshire grime artists and their neighbourhoods.
Street (2014-24)
A small selection of street photography spanning a decade of pounding the streets of Bradford and beyond.
John Bolloten’s street photos are often compiled into different bodies of work such published books Margins 1 and 2, and unpublished work like Levelling Up which documents the decline of our towns and cities.
John Bolloten is a documentary photographer based in Bradford, UK celebrated for his compelling and unfiltered exploration of social and cultural issues. This exhibition,
