Photographer Richard Grassick has captured what he considers his best photograph: members of the Stanhope Silver Band crossing the River Wear on stepping stones while wearing bright red sweaters. The image, taken in 1996, showcases the band's traditional journey to an agricultural show and represents a departure from Grassick's usual close-up documentary style.
Grassick joined the Amber Film & Photography Collective in 1983, an organization dedicated to documenting working-class life in northeast England. Over nearly three decades, he built an extensive body of work documenting life in the upper Durham Dales, which he later titled "People of the Hills." In 1994, he moved with his young family into a abandoned plumber's workshop and yard in Stanhope, Weardale, where he lived for six years.
Living in Stanhope allowed Grassick to photograph people in various circumstances and become acquainted with local residents, including smallholding owners whose children befriended his kids at school. The members of the Stanhope Silver Band featured in the photograph were well-known village residents. One band member, a carpenter, paid Grassick five pounds monthly to use his outbuildings as workshop space.
Every second weekend in September, Stanhope hosts an agricultural show on the south side of the River Wear, while the village sits primarily on the north side. The band follows a tradition of meeting in the village marketplace before walking to the show via Stanhope Ford, where they cross the river using a series of stepping stones. This ritual crossing became the subject of Grassick's celebrated photograph.
"It was the early days of my color photography career and the band all wore bright red jumpers," Grassick explained. In 1996, he was still developing his color photography skills when he recognized the visual potential of the scene. The band's bright red sweaters contrasted beautifully with the river, which appeared brilliantly blue on sunny days, while September foliage in Weardale provided rich background colors.
The photograph represented a departure from Grassick's typical approach, as he usually worked in close proximity to his subjects. With a background in sociology, his work typically involved participant observation. However, the Silver Band image allowed him to step back and concentrate on visual details, creating what he described as "a visual play, unfolding before me on an open air stage."
The stepping stones presented a logistical challenge for the band's more than 20 members. Each stone accommodates only one person, with at least a foot of space between them, making the crossing "a very delicate operation," according to Grassick, who compared it to "ducklings following their mother." The stones were also a fun challenge for Grassick's children and their friends.
To capture the image, Grassick positioned himself in the middle of the river after scouting the location a day or two earlier. He carefully selected his spot, as some areas had water only a foot deep while others would have filled his wellington boots. Since he had photographed the band in other situations before, the musicians weren't surprised to see him standing in the river. "I think they just thought: Here he goes again," he recalled.
The morning timing proved ideal for lighting, as Grassick faced west with the stones nicely illuminated. The resulting image captures individual band members in various stages of the crossing - some looking back, others forward, some waiting, and others stretching toward the next stone. This individual detail work gives the photograph "a kind of celebratory feel," which aligned with Amber's philosophy of celebrating working-class culture.
Born in Edinburgh in 1953, Grassick trained as a social science graduate before learning photography on the job as a freelancer in the 1970s. He cites numerous influences, particularly documentary photographers he worked with at Side and fellow Amber collective members, as well as Robert Capa, Eugene Richards, and Jindrich Streit. He considers joining Amber his career high point, while the 2012 closure of Darlington Arts Centre, which hosted the Darlington Media Workshop for aspiring photographers, marked a low point. His advice to photographers is to "immerse yourself totally in what lies on the other side of the lens."
Richard Grassick's Stanhope Silver Band photograph is currently available in the Sides 50x50 charity print sale, with proceeds supporting Sides' work and the AmberSide Collection.
