Photography project captures candid moments on Metro

Terminus, by Newcastle-based documentary photographer Sasha Mallo Tardiveau, is a digital photo exhibit which can be seen at www.sidegallery.co.uk/blog/terminus and on her own social media channels, Instagram: @mallo.tardivography

It is a vivid exploration of the Metro system, chronicling life during the final two years that the original train fleet was running.

Sasha’s photo essay features Metro’s most important asset – its customers. She spent many hours travelling on the system, meeting people and taking their pictures.

Shooting in colour, her work takes on a candid style, showing life as it happens, documenting a key time between 2024 and 2026, as the new Metro trains replaced the old ones.

Sasha was determined to provide an intimate portrait of normal life, drawing on the work of celebrated photographers Bruce Davidson and Mike Goldwater, who both won international acclaim for their photos of transport systems. Davidson used his camera to tell the story of the New York Subway in the 1980s, while Goldwater documented life on the London Underground for ten years between 1970 and 1980, prior to its modernisation.

Drawing on this body of work, Terminus also captures moments. The daily commute. People going to football matches. People in thought. Couples chatting and embracing. All in the surroundings of the Metro system.

Interactions and chance encounters were all there to be recorded on camera. Sasha travelled from station to station looking for the next picture. The series ended with one of the last old Metro train going, with poignant photos showing it at a breakers yard in County Durham.

“I just wanted to show moments of real life through the lens of my camera,” explained Sasha. “It’s been two years of work. I hope I’ve captured some candid moments, recording normal life on the Metro system.”

She added: “The focus was always daily life. Things that seem mundane, but when you see the photo of that moment it tells a story. Every single photo tells its own story.

“The people are at the heart of this project, along with our iconic and wonderful Metro system. I wanted to document the last two years as the old train fleet was being phased out.

“My photos show life during the end of an era for our region and for the Tyne and Wear Metro. Metro has been a part of my life almost daily, and these last two years of work have been like capturing a chapter in our region’s history.

“I’ve loved shooting this project. I can’t thank all the people enough for appearing in my pictures. They are just ordinary moments, but when you frame them in a photograph they can become iconic, and when people see that photo they want to know the story.

“I’ve drawn big inspiration from the works of noted photographers who have done great work over the years shooting transport systems. I wanted to emulate that style and bring it to our own Metro system here in the North East.”

Metro operator Nexus said the project had provided a candid snapshot of normal life on the system.

Lynne Dickinson, Station Delivery Manager at Nexus, said: “Sasha’s photographs are iconic. She’s framed normal life on our Metro system, where people rely on the services that we deliver to travel around. We commend her for the project, which is the culmination of two years of dedicated work.

“Projects like this underline just how important Metro is and how it’s become a vital part of the communities it has served for the last 46 years. The exhibit has helped to capture the end of an era for Metro, focusing on the last two years that our original trains were in service.

“But the real stars of this project are the customers. We are always keen to see engagement with projects that feature the Tyne and Wear Metro, the people who use it, and the people who work on it. Photography is a great medium to showcase the system. We are always keen to see engage with projects like this through our Art on Transport Programme.”

Ellen Stone, Creative Director, Side, said: “Sasha has an instinct for the point at which the everyday becomes revealing. Her photographs don’t ask people or places to perform for the camera; they find character in gestures, pauses, relationships and the shared experience of moving through the city. Side was proud to share Sasha’s work, and as part of our InSide community she is one of a growing number of photographers demonstrating the strength and range of documentary photography being made across the region now.”