Lens on two wheels: photographer Ricky Adam’s love letter to Leeds

Two many years in the past, photographer Ricky Adam swapped the rolling hills of Northern Ireland for the red-brick terraces of inner-city Leeds. Exploring this new setting on his bicycle, he introduced alongside his digital camera for the journey. And now he is introduced collectively one of the best of those pictures.

Ricky’s new ebook, Back-to-Back, printed by Audit/This is Ours with assist from the British Culture Archive, includes a collection of photographs taken between 2006 and 2024. The 144-page hardback captures the rhythm of day by day life within the Yorkshire metropolis, from one-eyed feral cats to youngsters taking part in in backstreets, washing strains to the omnipresent avenue pigeons that Ricky describes as “the real heroes of the inner city streets.”

The ebook, nevertheless, just isn’t one thing he has been planning for the reason that early 2000s. “I didn’t put any pressure on myself to see it as a ‘project’,” Ricky reveals. “It simply occurred organically over time. Quite a very long time, because it occurs. I’d exit on my bike for a pedal, simply to get out of the home, which is one thing I’ve executed since I used to be a child, and simply snap the odd photograph right here and there.

“Fast forward many years later,” he continues, “and the hundreds, thousands of photos I’d taken became something that I felt I could shape into a book. In the words of Jack Kerouac, ‘Something that you feel will find its own form.'”

The pull of the terraces

When Ricky first arrived in Leeds in 2003, he was instantly struck by town’s panorama. “It reminded me of photos I’d seen by photographers such as Shirley Baker and Tom Wood,” he recollects. “Classic social documentary photography taken in the north of England in the 1960s–1980s. And now, when I stepped outside my front door, it was right there. I was in it.”

The back-to-back homes that encompass Leeds “like a giant doughnut made from red bricks” turned his material, nearly by default. “Those wee red brick terrace streets were tantalisingly photographable,” he enthuses. And the rhythm of biking proved excellent for his observational method.

“Pedalling is the perfect pace to view the world,” he muses. “And it’s amazing how much ground you can cover on a bike. This enabled me to explore areas that I wouldn’t ordinarily go to. I could make a circular route around the whole city in about two to three hours, which you couldn’t really do on foot.”

This mobility additionally influenced his aesthetic decisions. “Many of the photos were taken whilst riding along on a bike and holding a camera up to my face, which in turn made some of the compositions a little off,” he notes. “But I like this offbeat aesthetic.”

Candid moments and group connections

The overwhelming majority of photographs within the ebook are candid, although Ricky did embrace some portraits of pals and neighbours. “For example, there’s one of my neighbours, Steve, holding a ferret,” he reveals. “I always make a point of making a print for anyone whom I take a photo of.”

Over time, the venture additionally helped solidify his place throughout the very group he was documenting. “I moved here 20 years ago from the north of Ireland, and if I’m honest, I’ve always felt like a bit of an outsider,” he admits. “As the years went by and I began to meet people, I became a lot more integrated into the community.”

Indeed, he got here to understand that a lot of his topics shared related emotions. “Leeds is a very transitory place and I began to feel more at home when I came to realise that a lot of people I was photographing had the same outsider syndrome that I did.”

Seasonal rhythms and editorial decisions

The altering seasons supplied each challenges and alternatives for Ricky’s work. “Photographing out and about on a bike in winter isn’t pleasant,” he notes. “Especially when you’re not wearing gloves and your fingers are ready to fall off from the cold. Also, it is very difficult to operate a camera.”

Yet he provides that these variations in the end helped construction every thing. “The seasons made the book into easily digestible chapters. They also injected the mood and changing tone of the place, as it transitioned from winter to summer and from autumn to spring. You can feel the cold in your bones and the sun on your skin, flipping through the book.”

A doc of time and place

Since publication, suggestions on the ebook has been broadly optimistic. “I’ve had lots of messages from people telling me stories of when they lived there, and how the photos have brought back memories for them,” he notes. “Even though I took the photos, I’ve started to realise they aren’t really mine. They’ve taken on a different life and now belong to the people who have lived in these streets over the decades.”

As Ricky prepares to return to Ireland to be nearer to household, Back-to-Back serves as each a private memoir and a broader doc of group life. “As an interloper, the last thing I wanted was to show the city in a negative way,” he displays. “I hope these photos resonate and show the positivity, optimism and enthusiasm that these little streets hold.”