Richard Heeps @ Cupola

Returning to Sheffield after a break, I caught the last day of the show of photographs by Richard Heeps at the Cupola Gallery. Some of the pictures are reproduced in his book Man's Ruin. Although this is a fine book, inevitably the images made much more impact as big original prints on the wall. As well, their trademark bright colours were so much more subtle in the chemical prints.

Richard's work is inspirational to the photographer. There's life and attitude in the people, the images are timelessly engaging, and their compositions very satisfying. Of course, the pictures are superb in terms of technique. But this mastery is almost understated, serving rather than driving the vision, never showy, even when that's exactly what the subjects are! I came away buzzing with visual ideas, and with two of Richard's books under my arm; Man's Ruin and his project on a Scunthorpe mill, Rolled Out.

In my own work, I thought I'd more-or-less resolved the film vs. digital debate in favour of the practical convenience of digital. But Richard's adherence to film is a bit of a challenge to that. In my first steps toward shooting hot metal in a Sheffield foundry a couple of years ago, I shot similar images on both colour negative film and digital. The film images certainly captured a wider range of tones.