An American student's snapshots of Nottingham life in 1976

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION CAPTURES A TIME OF CHANGE DURING ONE SEMESTER IN CITY

- By LYNETTE PINCHESS

STUDENT photographer John Dean was just 20 when he flew from his home in America to spend a term at Nottingham's Trent Polytechnic in 1976.

Over six months he roamed the city, armed with his trusty camera, to capture pictures of life on the streets in black and white one of which scooped a prize from his local newspaper when he returned to Baltimore.

Just a fraction of the thousands of photos are now being seen for the first time in Nottingham at a free exhibition at Bonington Gallery, close to the darkroom where he originally developed his many rolls of film.

Recalling his exchange trip to the city where John left the classroom behind for a practical life lesson, he said: "What was great about what happened here, I was sort of a tourist and I wanted to meet people and this was a great way to do it.

"I adopted the role naturally as, being a tourist, I just went out, met people and photographed them. It was a different place and my job was to take pictures and I took every opportunity."

Citing a quote from pioneering American photographer Ansel Adams, who captured the majesty of Yosemite National Park, "don't take pictures, make photographs," John added: "They were big on that at Trent as well. That's what they drummed into our heads."

John captured an important snapshot of Nottingham's history during a time of profound social and economic change.

By 1976, St Ann's was deep into a radical restructuring as the densely packed Victorian slums were replaced with new homes and roads.

"It was a new experience for me to see the level of demolition that parts of Nottingham was undergoing at the time of my arrival so I found it interesting and important to document," he said.