Small Town Inertia

Images & stories from the documentary series Small Town Inertia

[smalltowninertia]

As the first edition sold out before even arriving from the printers (Totem in Poland) it’s really exciting to learn that the second edition in softcover has now arrived.

Available via

www.imageandreality.com

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia 16 years work. Done. ✌️

[smalltowninertia]

From a pen swish in Whitehall. — SMALL TOWN INERTIA

Post by SMALL TOWN INERTIA

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia2 Si & Kirsty

Si & Kirsty went online to join their first NA meeting last night, I found a local meeting called 12 monkeys beginner group for them.

Together we went through their testimony, which they really, as always want to share, to share to show what’s really happening. As ever I’m so proud of my friends. Addiction doesn’t stop them being people I love. Nor should it.

Above is a transcription from our most recent talk together, pre proof reading & design etc for Vol 2 of Small Town Inertia.

We didn’t spend the last 16 years making sacrifices & giving all we have to make these books a reality for them to be coffee table books. My community & I will fight so fucking hard to get them into the public consciousness where I truly believe they could provoke long overdue dialogue that could instigate sweeping reforms to how the power in the UK neglects the underclass & how as a broader society, most either look on in contempt or look away in apathy & abstinence from the reality.

You can help in a vast way by directing people to this channel, friends, send your MP’s here, send anyone you can think of that might be those few rungs up the ladder that’s in a position to amplify this testimony in a way I simply cannot by myself.

✌️🙏

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia2 Si 2013

Today I shared a couple of hour video call with Si & his wife Kirsty. They are in a bad way. Cocaine flake. Dealers. Debt.

After our call I made as much research as I could finding Narcotics Anonymous meetings, Rehab help, anything to help them get on the path to getting clean. They have made the first step by wanting it.

I’m shocked at the absolute lack of proactive help from social services or their carers.

I also wrote up a plan of attack of things for them to do, 24/7 helplines & as I type they are on their first NA meeting via Zoom.

So frustrated that I can’t drive, even if I could there’s no way I could possibly afford to run a motor, cabs want over £100 return for a trip just two towns away. Bus is too time consuming whilst I’m also caring for my Ma & Pa.

So I’ve bent my own rules & entered a few photography competitions Sony World etc in an effort to get some money. It’s so weird to me that to dedicate a life to making this work & to be proactive with care & support, entails essentially playing the lottery just for a chance to survive.

Anyways, I’ll make it work, better than work, to make the best work possible as my community & I have some amazing people & stories lined up for Vol 3. Much work to do!.

Peace ✌️

[smalltowninertia]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iar/small-town-inertia-2

Preorders still open.

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia2 Thanks Dez for publicly sharing a human reaction to human stories & for supporting. 🙏

When you learn you’ve moved someone, it makes every sacrifice, all the time, worth it.

84% publishing costs funded by pre-orders… in 4 days, it’s almost impossible to believe. Thank you all so much 🙏

Pic is the new revised edition of Small Town Inertia Vol 1 which is also a part of our @kickstarter @imageandreality

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iar/small-town-inertia-2

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia2 Juggling looking after my folks & doing all I’m able to get over the line… 63% achieved via pre-orders on @kickstarter @imageandreality Incredible!.

I’ll be about a lot more this evening so if anyone needs anything, you know how to get me. ✌️

"Rich with passion and fire, but free of self-pity and misery - these poems, photographs and paragraphs take us into a world and a life that most of us are lucky enough not to know. But we should know, for this is a story of our fellow citizens trapped in a system that simply isn’t good enough. I urge you to take a look..." Sir Stephen Fry, July 2025

“Small Town Inertia 2 is the rarest of human projects in the fact that it is just that…Mortram lives and breathes for his community and his commitment to the isolated and ignored voices he documents is, in my opinion, the most important work taking place in UK photography today. Mortram’s work is a rare gift and I for one know that he cares more for the people involved in Small Town Inertia than he does for any compliment or plaudits from the wider arts and cultural arena. Mortram is the real deal." Jamie Thrasivoulou, July 2025

SMALL TOWN INERTIA 2

Stunning new work from Jim Mortram documenting life for those at the margins of Britain's welfare state

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia2 When the preorder for Small Town Inertia 2 is announced in a few weeks there will also be an option to preorder a revised edition of Small Town Inertia with more photographs, more testimony from my community & a new cover. Both will be hardback. Paperback planned later. A total of 16 years work!. @imageandreality

Assorted potential photos from books 1 & 2.

[smalltowninertia]

#smallowninertia2 Cathreen September 2024

Since suffering a stroke at the beginning of 2024 Cathreen has endured much change.

For the firs time in 30 years visits have been welcomed from Community nurses. It took monumental bravery.

Cared for, as ever, 247 by her family Cathreen enjoys watching her favourite series & films, the outside world a place long forgotten.

"Everything has got ten times harder. I keep flopping over. I've lost my pride.

(re winter fuel payments stopping) "Is it?... I think that is bloody awful. It's disgusting... absolutely degusting. Any way they can they grab every penny they can. It's so expensive being disabled."

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia2 Summary of topics covered during todays interview with David. When it got too emotional for him I called an end so he could rest. We shall continue next week.

Before leaving I took the time to tell him how he has inspired me & how proud I am to be his friend.

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia2 "My government will seek to address the generational poverty imposed upon unpaid carers, whom without their selfless dedication would place the health service in turmoil & undo the decade & a half of stigma placed upon our disabled community." Not said.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

The King's Speech 2024

His Majesty’s most gracious speech to both Houses of Parliament.

[smalltowninertia]

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia Really happy to have spent a few hours with David today. Lots of talking, listening, only raised my camera once.

After Ma's recent stroke I've become really pally with out district Nurse, who the absolute embodiment of a person made to be a Nurse, kind, caring, forthright, funny & really helpful.

I've suggested to David that he ask at his local GP to have a referral as he comes under the same district.

When I returned home, just in the nick of time to meet our ace plumber (The shower collapsed, major drama!) I also found that my shipping tubes for mailing prints had finally arrived.

I have so many folk to visit, be there for & document... every print sold helps me fund a completely self sufficient endeavour. The equation is dead simple, the more I shift the more I can afford to head out & make more.

Message me for info regarding print sales, anything you see on my Instagram, I can make for you & I'm the only place you can get them.

😊

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia Yesterday I visited with David & was with him when he learned that his Prostate Cancer had spread. A year after his initial diagnosis, after biopsies that got infected and resulted in his being hospitalised where he caught Covid and almost died.

I listened to David as he explained that he doesn't want any more biopsies, that he just wants to feel as good as he can until the Cancer kills him.

Whatever transpires, I'll stand by him and won't let him take this trip alone.

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia David at home

August 2023

Spent a long time today talking with David about isolation, the costs of dental treatment, the state of the NHS, the tragedy of Brexit & the Comanche tribe.

#blind #blindlife #austerity

[smalltowninertia]

#smalltowninertia David at home August 2023 Visited with David today. He's had the first stage of dental reconstruction with several more appointments books. Again, almost all our time together was shared in conversation & a few chores. One was to locate a trusted builder to repair a huge crack in an outer wall that's letting rain water in. #blind #austerity