An exhibition of photographs documenting the work of shipbuilders on the Tyne is being launched at Newcastle's Side Gallery

In 1983, the newspapers were full of the threat to the shipbuilding industry. The nationalisation of the industry, creating British Shipbuilders, had only taken place in 1977, but by the end of 1982 they'd already closed half the yards. The British Shipbuilders Act of 1983 required them to privatise the rest of the assets. This was the context within which Side Gallery commissioned photographer Bruce Rae to document the yards on the Tyne.

A portrait photographer, who had trained as an industrial photographer, he was an inspired choice, capturing the faces of the different trades, the awe-inspiring scale of the work, the powerful structures of the backgrounds that appeared everywhere he looked. Rae documented Swan Hunters, Neptune and Cleland's in Wallsend, the private Smith's Repair in North Shields, as well as Readhead's in South Shields and Clark Hawthorn's marine engine works in Wallsend, both of which were already in the process of closure.

"I had a minder at first, but he got bored halfway through the first day. After that, I was on my own," Rae remembers. "You wouldn't get away with it now, but they were different times. I was free to go where I wanted. All except for Neptune, maybe because it was a naval yard. I was working with a writer, Paul Rutishauser. For some reason, they were happy with me taking photographs, but they wouldn't let him in."

Smaller versions of the exhibition were shown in the late Eighties and the Nineties and, over recent years, Side Gallery has shown a few of the extraordinary photographs Rae took - in River in 2005, True/Grit in 2013 and in the popular For Ever Amber at Laing Art Gallery in 2015. This is the first time since 1983, however, that the full scale of the project has been shown.

"The more we went through the boxes, putting together different shows, the more we thought we should show this whole body of work again," says Amber Film & Photography Collective's Graeme Rigby. "They're beautiful photographs and beautiful prints."

Bruce Rae's photographs are held in the AmberSide Collection, which has grown out of the collective's production, commissioning and exhibition work over nearly 50 years. The new exhibition will also feature Amber's latest film, The Art of Shipbuilding, which explores the shipyard poetry of Jack Davitt (aka Ripyard Cuddling), the work of shipyard painter Peter Burns and the photographs of Bruce Rae and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen. The film also features poet Keith Armstrong, who originally published Davitt's books Shipyard Muddling and More Muddling. The film was made with the support of Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Heritage Lottery Fund.

Were you photographed by Bruce Rae?

Did you work in these yards in the early 1980s?

Side Gallery will be developing a set of education days at the gallery with primary schools, where children will explore the exhibition as well as learning photography skills and is looking for ex-shipyard workers who can come and talk about work in the yards and the photographs in the exhibition. Contact Side Gallery on 0191-232-2208 or side.gallery@amber-online.com.

  • Shipbuilding on the Tyne, Bruce Rae, 1983

The Art of Shipbuilding, Amber Films, 2017

Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, from Saturday, July 22 to Sunday, October 8. Tuesdays to Sundays, 11am to 5pm, free.

Side Gallery, 5-9 Side, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3JE