Nothing Lasts Forever: a long overdue retrospective on working-class Britain arrives in London
Diane Smyth | British Journal of Photography | 5th March 2025
Images of urban decay are sometimes called ‘ruin porn” and often feature grim images of poverty or class neglect. Not so from Mitchell who photographed northern England – particularly Leeds – in the 1970’s and later. His images show “utopian” social housing projects that end in failure (“dying buildings”) but also document those cities’ cohesive communities and the dignity of their residents. Mitchell is something of a “cult figure”, a “chaser of a disappearing world” with images that “exude warmth and empathy”.