A Sneak Peek at the Castle Howard In Bloom Flower Festival

Today, I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the fantastic Castle Howard In Bloom Flower Festival 2017.

The Burslem Boys at Barewall

If you take a trip down to the Barewall art gallery in Burslem within the next week, you’ll find yourself taken in by the interesting story of three local boys – The Burslem Boys.

Amanda Bromley and Paula Millward, owners of Barewall, are exhibiting the works of Norman Cope, Arthur Berry and John Shelton, three boys who were students of the Burslem School of Art in the 1940’s, and great friends. The families of the three have worked with Bromley and Millward to create this display, and this is the first time Cope, Berry and Shelton’s works have been exhibited together.

Alongside the paintings and drawings are letters sent between the young men, and a very sad story. On December 16^th, 1943, the three boys reunited at the Burslem School of Art for a Christmas Ball nearby. However, during the evening, Norman Cope fell on the stairs and fractured his skull, causing his untimely death at only 18 years of age. Cope now lies in an unmarked grave, and the family have decided to use money from the sales of his work at Barewall to buy a grave marker for him.

The local connections to these works have made the exhibition hugely popular, which has lead to the display time being extended for a further week. Barewall itself is a fantastic little space, and for a gallery reliant solely on it’s sales and exhibitions, seems to be doing very well. The Burslem Boys exhibition tells a lovely local story through interesting artworks and intimate letters, and is well worth a visit.

Amanda Bromley, one half of Barewall

Copies of letters sent between the boys

The gallery space at Barewall

Find more information about the exhibition here

The Temple of a Thousand Bells

I recently visited St Marys Church in York to photograph The Temple of a Thousand Bells – a hauntingly beautiful art installation of a thousand hand blown glass bells by Brazilian artist Laura Belém. It has been open since mid May, and closes in November.

The church itself is a lovely building, with the foundations dating back to the early 11th Century. It was deconsecrated in the mid 1950’s, and is now used for a range of different art installations.

Here are my photographs from my visit.

This photograph is completely unedited!

Please let me know what you think, constructive criticism is always welcome!

God Save The (Drag) Queen

For my editorial style project I chose to focus my attention on the drag culture around Stoke-on-Trent (that of which is surprisingly large!) I found Michael Batchelor (otherwise known as Tanya Hyde), drag queen and pantomime dame, at Pink nightclub in Hanley. He agreed to let me photograph him both in the studio and at the club.

I eventually chose 5 final images, but below are a larger selection of my photographs.