A quarter of a century later, Dave Clark now lives in Hong Kong but his photographic documentary of local life in the year 2000 still lives on.
During that year, Dave took almost 20,000 photographs, many of which can be viewed online at https://djclark.com/2000, and copies of his book, A Little English City, with a foreword by former Lancaster Guardian chief reporter Bryan Carter, are still available to order.
Dave’s photographs are also archived at Lancaster City Museum which hosted an exhibition of them in 2001.
The book and exhibition were designed for a contemporary audience but within the body of work are many pictures that were taken for future audiences, documenting streets, buildings and the general geography of the area. Some of these are on the website which Dave built during the project as a way of people being able to comment on and provide captions for the images.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the project, we will be regularly featuring some of the photographs beginning with some of those taken during local celebrations of the new millennium.
“I took the first picture at the stroke of midnight January 1, 2000 and the last picture just before the stroke of midnight December 31, 2000 and remember feeling huge relief as the clock struck 12 on January 1, 2001 as the project had overtaken my life by then,” said Dave.
In 2000, Dave was an established editorial photographer with assignments around the world, having graduated from Lancaster University in 1983.
Among his early photographic assignments were covering the first Palestinian Intifada and first Gulf War.
He set up Folly in 1991, initially a photo agency specialising in working with overseas development organisations and later a gallery, café and photography/video arts centre in The Storey.
“I wanted to take the next step and develop a longer form project,” said Dave.
“The year 2000 seemed like a good reference point for a documentary project and I had been inspired by other photographers like Humphrey Spender‘s Worktown Study on Bolton. By then I had also started teaching at what was then Bolton Institute (now Greater Manchester University) and so was looking for a project closer to home.”
Dave began preparations for A Little English City in 1999 dividing the project into four categories – people, places, events and daily lives.
“It started slow with subjects I could easily access but as the project grew and the Lancaster Guardian featured it in a monthly column, so more and more people were willing to get involved.”
Dave has fond memories of working on the project, particularly the day he spent with Lancaster’s then mayor, Edna Jones. A few weeks earlier, he had spent time with the council’s refuse collecting team so was surprised to find that one of the collectors, Naomi Williams, also acted as the mayor’s driver and personal assistant.
“The mayor constantly asked her what she needed to do at each event she attended while the refuse collector-come-driver calmly gave her instructions, straightened her chain and talked her through each step of the day.”
When it came to choosing a favourite event or subject he photographed during 2000, Dave cited a day on the Stagecoach buses and a punks picnic in Morecambe as probably the most fun but said the day in Lancaster prison was most interesting as his office looked out over the castle “and I always wondered what went on beyond the thick walls”.
In total, Dave took 19,224 photographs during the year. “If I did it today on a digital camera, I would probably take 50 times more as techniques have changed. Back then, every click was a cost.”
And life for Dave has changed significantly too since 2000. A year after the project, he began a PhD at Durham University and then moved to Dalian in China in 2006 to set up a new MA for Greater Manchester University.
He moved to Beijing in 2009 and then Hong Kong in 2015 where he now lives with his family. Since he left Lancaster, he as worked for many international media organisations including National Geographic, the BBC and The Economist.
Among the many awards he’s achieved include the World Press Photo Interactive of the Year 2020 for an immersive video about the Hong Kong protests.
Since 2000, exhibitions of A Little English City have toured around other Lancasters in America and to photography festivals in Mali, China and the UK.
He often returns to Lancaster “which always feels like home to me”, and two years ago brought his children for the first time.
“I very much enjoyed showing them the pictures from the project and talking about the whole experience.”
7. January 1, 2000
Lancaster's then MP, Hilton Dawson, lights the beacon outside the Priory as the clock chimes midnight on January 1, 2000. Photo: DJ Clark
8. December 31, 2000
Dave Clark's self portrait taken in Dalton Square at the end of the project, 11.59 on December 31, 2000. Photo: DJ Clark