WORKS by a fine art photographer from Evenwood capturing the history and folklore of Hartlepool has gone on display.
Graham Vasey was commissioned by Hartlepool Art Gallery to produce an exhibition on the town’s history using his unique photography techniques of multiple exposures, burnt onto watercolour paper using a light sensitive emulsion.
The photographer uses a large format film camera, much like those used in Victorian times, to capture his images.
Mr Vasey said: “It functions the same as a camera that Elijah Yeoman (a photographer who operated in Barnard Castle in the late 1800s) would have used. It functions in a similar way, but it is a bit lighter and a bit more portable than the cameras he would have had.”
The film is easily removed and reloaded into the camera to make a double exposure, or multiple exposures.
The 42-year-old, who studied film photography at Newcastle College, added: “Since about 2016 I have been experimenting with double exposures to create a story and narrative in my work.
“I have always been interested in history, particularly of the north east and north west, so I have researched the origins of place names and with that came folklore about locations and things, but it is very difficult to do that with one photograph. So I thought the double exposure is a really good way to incorporate multiple elements to create a bit more depth to the narrative.”
An example of this is an image he created for the exhibition titled “1,000 metric tonnes”, it features an image of an oil rigg being decommissioned at Hartlepool as well as a wind turbine destined for a wind farm in the North Sea. Overlaid over these is the image of a curlew.
Mr Vasey said: “I love this juxtaposition of old and new technologies with the natural environment. I used the symbol of the curlew as a part of that essence of wetland and wilderness.”
Another of the 15 images that are on display is one of a number of seagulls overlaid on an image of a seaman’s sou’wester oilskin hat and reflects the historic belief that the spirits of dead seamen come back as seagulls.
Another interesting facet of the artworks is how they are created. Instead of traditional photographic paper, Mr Vasey uses a soft brush to apply a light-sensitive emulsions to watercolour paper, which is exposed in a darkroom to the negative image.
The result has the wonderful textured quality of a painting with visible voids and brushstroke edges, but also the sharp crispness of a photograph.
The photographer said: “There are people using liquid emulsion, and you have people who use multiple exposures as well, but I haven’t seen many combine the two the same way that I do.
“I really want to create something unique.”
It was his previous work in using double exposures to create a narrative around folklore that led Hartlepool Art Gallery to commission the exhibition. The artist then spent a year doing research, with full access to Hartlepool Museums archive, including being able to photograph images such as the original sou’wester hat. He also worked with Teesside folk group, the Young’uns, interpreting one of their songs into an artwork.
Being based in Evenwood for the past 14 years has been a great source of inspiration for the photographer.
He said: “The lovely thing about Evenwood, for me as an artist, it is right on the doorstep of some of the most beautiful landscapes you could want to photograph – all of Teesdale and Weardale, and also the surrounding areas, like Copley Wood and Cockfield Fell.
“Over the years I have found some really amazing locations – past industrial relics and things, right on our doorstep which have become part of my body of work.”
The exhibition, which opened on February 1, is free to attend at Hartlepool Art Gallery, and will continue until the end of March.
