Wild Wanderings

Images of the Isle of Man by Jimmy Thistle

IMAGES Jimmy Thistle WORDS Suzy Holland

It’s sometimes hard to keep up with the creativity inspired by the Isle of Man particularly over the last couple of years when lockdowns and isolation periods have kept many inside and many others out and about exploring the delights the coast and hills have to offer. Jimmy Thistle is one of the latter - a new name amongst Island photographers (he moved here permanently in July 2020), his exhibition Wild Wanderings is now on at Artea in Port Erin.

If you are one of the hundreds who follow Jimmy on social media, you’ll already know that he is a recovering alcoholic (18 months sober by the time you read this) who credits the Island with giving him a fresh start, not just in his recovery but also in rekindling his love of photography.

“The Isle of Man is where I need to be,” says Jimmy, who’s originally from Glasgow. “After a breakup, and a break down, I came to the Island to join my parents and my brother and his family. I’d visited, of course, but in early 2020 I took the plunge and moved over. I thought then, and know now, that it was the right decision.”

It’s hard to comment on the positivity of the photographs in Wild Wanderings without referencing the dark place he’s come from. “Although I studied photography and worked as a commercial photographer for a while, at one time I was also tied to a desk working long hours in a bank. I knew it wasn’t for me, and my mental health and relationships suffered.” His family could see how Jimmy was plummeting down into an alcohol-fuelled abyss and by the

middle of 2020 persuaded him to move, and, at the same time, get sober.

“I started my Instagram page @recovery_ jimmy as a form of therapy,” he says. “I took out my phone and decided to post a selfie a day for 500 days.” Those 500 days ended, by sheer co-incidence (“it wasn’t planned,” he laughs) on 31 December 2021 and if you scroll back to the beginning you can see just how Jimmy’s changed – not just in his ‘wild man of Borneo’ hair and beard but also in the contentment which radiates from his face.

“I’m not saying it was easy,” Jimmy says, “but I’ve found the tranquillity and positivity inherent in the very ground I was walking and working as a gardener has overtaken any need to dull my senses. And I’ve realised that I need to be outside and I need to record the things I see around me.”

Which brings us neatly to Wild Wanderings. Jimmy sees what he calls ‘the beauty in the mundane’ and it is that beauty which makes up the photographs on the walls of Artea in Port Erin. Although strictly speaking most of the images are of the landscape, Jimmy’s skill is in seeing them with ‘a squint in the eye’: familiar but different.

“When I reached 500 days sober my

outlook had changed and I wanted to take photographs with a happy, positive undertone,” Jimmy says. So he set up a new Facebook and Instagram page to show these images @jimmy_thistle_photo. If you know anything about social media, it’s all about the ‘likes’ and with these new images he found a new group of followers, including Pippa Lovell who was looking for artists to exhibit in Artea.

“Social media, particularly Instagram, can be a double-edged sword,” says Jimmy. “My ‘therapy’ page attracts a lot of ‘likes’ from people who are in similar situations, who use it as encouragement in their own battles. The new page is different – and has attracted attention of people who like photography, some who love the actual places I photograph and others who, like me, love abandoned buildings and interesting angles.”

And there are plenty to choose from in Wild Wanderings. You’ve got until 10 March to get to Port Erin to see Jimmy’s exhibition (Artea is opposite Shoprite, with plenty of Fairtrade tea, coffee and vegan snacks to nourish you). And you can always take your favourite image home too – prints in various sizes are available.

“Although I studied photography and worked as a commercial photographer for a while, at one time I was also tied to a desk working long hours in a bank. I knew it wasn’t for me, and my mental health and relationships suffered.”

www.facebook.com/jimweirphoto Instagram @jimmy_thistle_photo @recovery_jimmy www.facebook.com/Artea-103055595401238 Instagram @areteaiom