Further to my previous post, the Industrial Tourist opened at Astley Hall on Saturday and all the hard work has paid off! Rory from the Astley Hall staff and myself (but mainly Rory) put all the frames up on Friday and I had a small opening for family and friends on Saturday. Well, I call it an opening but that conjures up visions of well heeled types quaffing champagne and canapés, this was lemonade, Pringles and a tub of Celebrations shared among whoever turned up. There followed a continuous stream of visitors for the next two and a half hours, some who had seen the exhibition advertised, others who were just visiting the Hall. It was good to engage with people and talk about my work face to face as most people only see it online.

I realised when I got home that I’d not actually spent any time with the exhibition on my own. Sure, I’d spent a huge amount of time with the photographs previously, but seeing it all framed and on the wall is a different experience to seeing the images in Lightroom or as 6×4 prints on the bedroom floor (a technique I use to select the photographs and sequence them). So I will be going back to just look at it again as a whole, rather than as a selection of individual images, and from the perspective of a visitor rather than the photographer. This is one of the benefits of exhibiting 10 minutes from home!

The Industrial Tourist is on display at Astley Hall in Chorley until 22nd December 2019. The Hall is open 12-4 on weekends only – it is not open during the week.