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How often have you heard someone say, “Life isn’t fair”? Social inequality is all around us, and it’s easy to think that little can be done about it. But Jacky Chapman believes that photography can make a difference. “Photography can play a vital role – it can be a wake-up call,” she says, “It’s not just about highlighting the poor and desperate; it’s also about highlighting the huge difference between the haves and the have not’s. It’s about showing what’s wrong in the world with the hope that change can be made.”

If anyone should know about the impact photography can have on social inequality, it’s Jacky. Although her portfolio also covers editorial, educational, portraiture and corporate work, for the past thirty years, she has been documenting social inequality.

Her clients have included the Times Educational Supplement, Guardian and BBC, and she has worked for many charities like, Shelter, Mencap and Victim Support. Her international work has included photographing AIDS victims and orphans in Uganda; child poverty in St. Petersburg, and migrant camps in Dunkirk and Calais. Her latest work includes covering the Grenfell Tower fire and its aftermath.

Jacky was born in 1963. “I’m a working class kid from Leeds, my grandparents lived in a back-to-back terraced house, and up till the age of 10, I lived in a block of flats by a main road. From an early age, even though not fully aware of it, social inequalities were all around me. The 70s were the decade of strikes, three-day weeks, power cuts and huge unemployment. I grew up seeing social issues on my doorstep.”

When Jacky was around 18, an inspiring teacher on her art and design foundation course introduced her to the darkroom and the photograms of Man Ray.  “I was fascinated by this newly discovered world of creating abstract images in a totally blacked out room. Even though I was excited by photography, I realised that I enjoyed graphic design.”

Jacky studied graphic design at Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University) and did an MA in graphic design at Central School of Art and Design in London (now Central St Martin’s), which included photography and video.

“I really started down the road to be a graphic designer, but got side tracked!” she says, “It was on the graphic design course at Leicester that I realised I wanted to explore the world of photography. I was introduced to the work of Don McCullin, Eugene Smith and FSA photographers like Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Russell Lee [the Farm Security Administration was set-up in the 1930s to combat rural poverty in the USA, during the Great Depression]. I could feel myself being pulled more towards documentary and reportage rather than design.”

Jacky took lots of photographs on her graphic design course, “I designed layouts and typefaces, but also shot my own images to accompany them. I documented Smithfield meat market in London; street life in Leicester; lived in a rural Spanish village and even photographed a birth. I was hooked. Documentary photography gets into the blood; it’s obsessive. Social inequalities were all around me. What I saw through the camera had to be explored. At that point I decided that I wanted to make a living as a photographer.”

Although Jacky opted for photography, her interest in graphic design has influenced her work, focusing on strong composition and often exploring shadows and abstractions, as a means of further conveying meaning.

In 1987, Jacky worked part-time on the picture desk at the Times Educational Supplement. “I learnt the invaluable skills of commissioning photographers; how to do photo searches, filing and categorising images. I learned the importance of organisation and having great people skills.” In the same year, aged 24, she became a freelance photographer.

“Someone told me about this all-female agency called ,” recalls Jacky, “Format was unique. I believe it was the only women’s agency in the world. It promoted contemporary female photographers; it gave women a voice in a male-dominated market.” Jacky was a member of Format until 2003, when the agency closed.

The status of women photographers has improved, says Jacky, but there is still much more to be done, “Even today on demos or protests, I’d say that the majority of photographers are male. That said; there are many female photographers around the world who are producing incredible documentary stories. Thanks to the internet and platforms such as the Social Documentary Network, we can see their work.  We women need to get out there and promote our work much more.”

We live in an age of the moving image, so how has photography retained the ability to document social inequality so powerfully? “Photography has the power to capture social inequality in a single well-framed image,” says Jacky, “It’s the power of the image. It’s the intensity that engages the viewer. Why try and say something in three minutes when you can say it in 1/60th of a second?”

But in a world flooded with images, is there a danger of “compassion fatigue”? “Definitely. We have 24/7news, social media and crowd-funding pages in our faces all the time, that we are getting numb to world issues. We are overwhelmed by issues and images. We are also getting more horrific images, because everyone now has a cameraphone.”

Is there a solution? “Maybe instead of trying to take on the world; one takes on fewer causes? Maybe it’s generational. If the older, compassionate individuals are suffering fatigue, hopefully the next generation that comes to it will see it with fresh eyes.”

Documenting social inequality often means working under challenging conditions. How does Jacky control her emotions and retain the dignity of the people she is photographing in such circumstances? “When I lift the camera, I slip into another frame of mind,” she says, “The graphic designer in me comes to the surface, and it’s all about composition to maximise the impact of the content.  If anything, I am probably not aggressive enough in trying to get ‘the’ image because I do retain sensitivity to people’s dignity. I try to be a passionate observer of life. I want to find out about people’s lives, and I hope my images show the dignity of the people I’m photographing.”

Jacky recalls a harrowing incident in Uganda in 1991, when she was photographing Irish nuns, who alongside local nurses were helping AIDS patients out in the bush. “People were dying and not much foreign help was coming into the country. One morning, a nurse took me out into a mud hut in the bush. Inside, it was pitch-black and a woman lay dying. I had my camera in my hand, but I felt I couldn’t use it.”

The woman moved her hand towards Jacky.  “So I held it. She looked at me and spoke in Swahili. The translation was, ‘take my picture so the world can see what’s happening to us’.  So without a tripod, I balanced the camera on my knee and tried to capture the dignity of this woman. The following day she died. When I returned to England, that picture was used.”

Jacky makes a living through commissions and stock. She says that although the explosion of images has made stock a more challenging market, “It’s still a worthwhile income stream.” She believes photographers should invest time in keywording – and offer stock images that differentiate their work from everyone else’s. Having a good relationship with your stock library is also key, adds Jacky, “�ڹϳ���is one of the few libraries that still appears to care for the photographer. It provides a great platform for us to upload our work and make some money.”

When it comes to advice for budding photographers, she says, “Be passionate about what you do. Occasionally take stock of what you’re doing, and push forward. Question yourself often: why am I doing this? Always remember there are highs and lows. Some jobs are mundane, and there’ll be times when the mobile doesn’t ring. But there’s absolutely nothing else in this world that I’d rather do.”

Finally, what does Jacky hope her photography achieves?  “I hope it shows compassion, raises awareness, and possibly reveals a different perspective on an issue. We have to record the present, so that future generations can look back and analyse. So we can never forget what terrible injustices have gone on before, but also to hope that things can change.”

See some of Jacky’s work here.