Top image: Niall McDiarmid, Bargate, Southampton, Hampshire ( July 2014)

In 2011, British commercial and editorial photographer Niall McDiarmid began what would turn out to be an extensive series of portraits that would take him across the whole of the UK, from the Scottish Highlands to Lands’ End.

In those seven years, McDiarmid has visited over two hundred towns, cities and villages, and photographed locals spanning generations, classes, backgrounds and cultures. Together, the project offers a 360 degree vantage point of British society that showcases the country’s cross-cultural vibrancy. “[Britain is] often portrayed in monotone colours, greys and blacks,” the photographer tells us. “I was interested in colour and trying to play off the colours that people were wearing, and the street backgrounds.”

This January, the artist will exhibit the visual compilation – titled Town to Town – at Bristol’s Martin Parr Foundation. With over two thousand portraits in his archives, most shot on medium format film, the South London artist has cut his extensive series down to seventy stills that would reflect his seven-year escapade. 

Undine Markus: How did you turn an idea of an individual series into a larger body of work?Niall McDiarmid: I started in South London where I live and I didn’t really have any specific project in mind. After a few weeks, I thought I’d branch out to cover different areas of London as I wanted to take what I was doing to towns around London and I was very keen to go to towns that weren’t that well documented or considered particularly glamorous. I did that for a couple of months and then I had a lightbulb moment where I decided to cover as much of the whole country as possible. 

Undine: And did you not feel the temptation to stop the project earlier?
Niall: I’m aware now that you really need to have a very distinctive style and you need to push very hard to make a name for yourself. I’ve been lucky that I’ve had a couple of big exhibitions… if I sort of knocked-off early and changed my direction, I don’t think those things would have come. 

Undine: What was the moment when you decided to say “right, this is done”?
Niall: Like a lot of people in the creative disciplines, whether it’s music or writing… once you have a name and certain style, you don’t want to drift too far from that. So the project is kind of ongoing. With regard to exhibitions… I’ve published three books now, the first couple were self-published and the last one was through a publisher, those are very often sort of full stops. I was approached by the Museum of London and then I was approached by Martin Parr to do an exhibition at his foundation. You kind of have to wait a little bit for people to contact you.

Undine: And how many cities and towns did you visit throughout the project?
Niall: I never counted, but it’s over two hundred. Quite a few of the places I’ve revisited, I’m keen to keep going and keep doing it.

Undine: Did you find any common traits amongst the communities that you captured?
Niall: I was keen to show my view of Britain – an ethnically diverse country. Some people in Britain have this way of looking at the country… it’s often portrayed in monotone colours, greys and blacks, that’s something I wanted to get away from. I was interested in colour and trying to play off the colours that people were wearing, and the street backgrounds. I wanted to meet people that could let me have this individual style.

Town to Town by Niall McDiarmid is published by RRB PhotoBooks and will be exhibited at the Martin Parr Foundation from 31st January – 15th May 2018.