Jim Mortram


Jim Mortram, also credited as J. A. Mortram, is a British social documentary photographer and writer, based in Dereham, Norfolk. His ongoing project, Small Town Inertia, records the lives of a number of disadvantaged and marginalised people living near to his home, in order to tell stories he believes are under-reported.
His photographs and writing are published on his website, in a few zines published by Café Royal Books in 2013, and in the book Small Town Inertia published by Bluecoat Press in 2017.

''Small Town Inertia''

Mortram began the Small Town Inertia website in 2006 with the "Market Town" stories. Its name is a reference to the market town of Dereham, where he lives, fifteen miles west of the city of Norwich in Norfolk. Through photography, his writing and the subject's own words, Mortram records the lives of the disadvantaged and marginalised, making repeated visits with a number of people living within three miles of his home. Small Town Inertia tells stories of "isolation, poverty, drug abuse, homelesness, self-harm, mental illness, juvenile crime, and epilepsy", that Mortram believes are otherwise under-reported.
Dave Stelfox wrote in The Guardian that "Mortram's rich, black-and-white images possess a timeless quality that invites easy comparison with the classic documentary work of such British photographers as Chris Steele Perkins, Paul Trevor and Chris Killip."

Publications

Publication by Mortram