Jimmy Forsyth (15 August 1913 – 11 July 2009) was a British amateur photographer, who in his later life became celebrated for his portrayal of the working class communities of Tyneside and received wide recognition for this achievement prior to his death aged 95. He was equally accomplished in showcasing both the people and the environment of his chosen locality.
Table of Contents
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Career
- 1.2 Personal life
- 1.3 Honours, awards and medals
- 1.4 Scotswood Road
- 1.5 Jimmy Forsyth: Photographs from the 1950s and 1960s
- 1.6 An Innocent Eye: Jimmy Forsyth, Tyneside Photographer by Anthony Flowers (2013-05-08)
- 1.7 Out of One Eye: The Photography of Jimmy Forsyth by Anthony Flowers (2002-10-08)
- 1.8 Jimmy Choo Donna/S Black One Size
- 1.9 Shenandoah
- 1.10 Shenandoah
- 1.11 Hitmen - True Stories of Street Executions
- 1.12 Jenga Classic Game
- 1.13 Kids (Unrated) [VHS]
Biography
Forsyth was born upon 15 August 1913 at 24 Trinity Street Barry, South Wales the son of John and Bertha Forsyth. The relatives had originally hailed from Garmouth in Morayshire. Forsyth was educated at High Street School Barry.
Career
He left teacher at 14 without any formal qualifications and became an apprentice fitter. After completing his apprenticeship in 1934 he found it hard to find regular work. Through 1936–37 he was in the Merchant Navy. During World War Two fitters were valued tradesmen and Forsyth came to Newcastle aged 30 in 1943. He found digs in Elswick off Scotswood Road, near the good Elswick Ordnance Factory. His war statute however took him to a supplementary ICI factory a few miles stirring the Tyne Valley at Prudhoe. The next-door few years proved complicated. Only a few days into the job at Prudhoe an industrial crash blinded him for enthusiasm in one eye. He was dexterous to proceed at the ICI factory until he was dismissed in 1946. His subsequent attempts at gaining paid employment proved frustrating and included a further industrial accident.
Photography
Forsyth’s photographic career started a while before 1954. As an unemployed man he started to photograph the city surrounding him and later than he could sell the results. That he summative an Strange ability coupled bearing in mind overcoming financial and brute impairment was remarkable although reaction of this took time. His presence in the west decline of Newcastle next coincided in the ventilate of major social bend as terraced housing and stuffy industry gave mannerism to tall rise flats and green space. Although he had no formal training Forsyth developed a logical approach, indexing his images and carefully identifying their subjects. Recognition started like a first exhibition in 1979 and subsequently the Side Gallery mounting an exhibition in 1981. It accelerated past a interest of a TV documentary and a Bloodaxe Books volume Scotswood Road in 1986. Thereafter an Open University Honorary Degree and two more books prepared in his lifetime followed. As become old passed Forsyth worked in both monochrome and colour.
His amassing was safeguarded at his death and is now in public ownership in Newcastle. The feat towards this terminate had started afterward Jimmy’s full co-operation and a inherit from Northern Arts in the to the lead 1990s. A fourth wedding album of his work An Innocent Eye was published in May 2013. For camera equipment he started taking into consideration a Coronet Camera Company 127 “box” camera. This was followed later than a Rolleiflex bought secondhand for the relatively huge sum of £20.
Personal life
Forsyth never married. Having moved to Tyneside he lived in a succession of digs and apartments. An upfront abode he called ” a half brothel”. From 1952 he was in a Tyneside flat at 353 Scotswood Road and this was house until the bulldozers called in 1963. The conclusion to his enthusiasm from 1983 was spent in the onslaught known as The Cedars. By the very stop his last months were spent in Elswick Hall care home. Forsyth appeared in the 1988 film Stormy Monday which was set in Newcastle.
Honours, awards and medals
Last update 2021-08-06