Gomma Photography Grant 2023
'Round Midnight
Photographer
Mark McEvoy
'Round Midnight
23 Feb, 2024
From 1992-1995 I photographed life on the London Underground on Friday and Saturday nights after 11pm. It was a window into a world in stark contrast to the weekday commuters - late night travellers shifting into party mode after their working week, or people returning home after dates, dinners or a night out of entertainment. Due to the confined space of the tube compartments I decided it would be better to ask permission before taking photos. This led to all sorts of unexpected conversations and spontaneous reactions some of which were captured on film. Part of this series was published in the Independent newspaper Saturday supplement magazine in 1995, and not long after Extract magazine (now defunct). Otherwise most of this project has never been seen. The nostalgia felt revisiting these images after 30 years is strong, and I’ve become aware of the new meaning the images have taken on as an historical document of London culture. The fashion and style, older trains, adverts, newspapers and not one person looking down into their mobile phone. It was a slice of life captured in my youth at a time I feel lucky to have misspent my youth.
About the photographer
Mark McEvoy
Mark McEvoy uses photography, video and sound to investigate and archive life experience. After studying Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art and Media Studies at London College of Printing he pursued documentary photography. He travelled extensively throughout India and the Far East and closer to home to produce photo essays for newspapers and magazines including The Independent Saturday and Sunday magazine supplements. From 2009-2021 he was a sessional photography degree lecturer at Middlesex University and for many years has regularly freelanced as an art facilitator for educational organizations and charities working with vulnerable youths. Since completing an MA in Design for Interactive Media in 2001 he has been exploring narratives through photography, film, and multi-media experimenting with traditional and digital processes. In 2019 and 2012 he had portraits exhibited in The National Portrait Gallery as one of the finalist in the Taylor Wessing Photo Prize. He has exhibited widely and been published internationally in a variety of newspapers and magazines including Financial Times, Guardian, The Telegraph, New Scientist, Foto8, Esquire, Sky Magazine, Times Magazine and British Journal of Photography. Mark has 3 children and lives in Margate, Kent.
