Tim Mitchell and A Fish Out of Water

Documentary Photography Review Podcast

In this Documentary Photography Review Podcast we talk to Tim Mitchell, a London based documentary photographer. Tim tells us about his journey into photography through music and the visual arts, and the challenges and positive aspects of developing as a self-taught photographer. Tim often works collaboratively with academics, and we discuss this method of working and how it can add depth to both the academic and photographic body of work.

Created in collaboration with social scientists, Tim’s recent project, A Fish Out of Water documents the breaking of a ship, the RFA Grey Rover, over two years in a dry dock in Liverpool, UK. Referred to as ‘the workhorses of globalisation’, ships slowly but surely transporting materials, influence and power across the globe. They then require huge amounts of energy and force to be dismantled at the end of their working lives and the vast quantities of hazardous materials contained within the ship become reanimated, problematic and dangerous. Once disturbed, the very materials that protected life now become a threat. An important element to this recent body of work was the use of time-lapse photography, a challenging but powerful visual tool.