A vision focused on ordinary people

This is the first major retrospective of the work of Martin Jenkinson. He built his career on documenting the lives of ordinary people.

During the Miners’ Strike of 1984-5 Jenkinson did his most famous work.

He documented the struggle in minute detail and brought it to life.

This exhibition features some of his most famous pictures from that period, as well as lesser-known but equally moving shots of working class life.

Included in the exhibition is perhaps his most famous picture, of a miner inspecting police lined up without numbers on their shoulders at Orgreave.

In a 2004 interview with Socialist Worker Jenkinson described how he covered the dispute. “A lot of the local press went and stood behind the police lines,” he said. “Me, John Harris and John Sturrock, and some others were on the miners’ side. That’s not a false picture, it’s a way of getting at the truth.”

Also featured is his portrait of Maxine Duffat (above), the first black woman bus driver for South Yorkshire Passenger Transport.

Weston Park Museum, Sheffield, Until 14 April, Admission free

Of Gods, Rainbows and Omissions

Athi-Patra Ruga’s first major solo British exhibition brings together three recent series of work for the first time.

The exhibition unveils a surreal, mythical utopia, filled with a collection of extraordinary characters.

Ruga uses mediums from drawings and sculpture to film and photography, as well as hand-crafted tapestry.

The exhibition grapples with the issue of identity in post-apartheid South Africa. It points to the country’s colonial past, apartheid and suggests visions for its future.