Blackpool photography exhibition

Now showing at the Grundy Art Gallery, Mass Photography: Blackpool Through the Camera, is an exhibition that examines the enduring romance people have had with Blackpool throughout the 20th century.

During this time, many of the Europe's preeminent photographers made their way to Blackpool to lavish their cameras with the unique landscape of the seaside town, its inhabitants and the many visitors that spent time there.

Ian Berry, Alfred Gregory, Peter Marlow, Martin Parr, Tony Ray-Jones, Chris Steele-Perkins and Homer Sykes, were some of the photographers who added their own take on this scenic world.

Their work, along with other images that have been discovered in the archives and photobooks in Blackpool's vaults, have been put together to form the bulk of this amazing new show.

Curated by the German artist Nina Konnemann, the exhibition, which has in total some 100 images, traces the changing trends in photographic expression as the century rolled on throughout some of human history’s greatest triumphs and tragedies.

According to the Ms Konnemann, Mass Photography aims to encourage the viewer to make "their own way through the Blackpool experience, comparing and juxtaposing the way the different photographers have looked at people having fun but also at the downtime of mass leisure".

The artist has also produced her own distinct work of art in response to going through all the images.

Her video installation is based on the material she found from souvenir films of the Blackpool Illuminations, the annual lights festival that is held every autumn in the seaside town.

Speaking to the Guardian, the artist said: "In my installation, there is a sense of this continuous, cyclical loop that suggests this strange thing that is Blackpool time. It really is a place that relies on the past so much even as it tries to reinvent and remarket itself. You sense that same feeling in the photographs, too."

Mass Photography does more than just engage the viewer. It asks them to look deeper to see if their own experience of Blackpool can be found in the images in front of them.

All of these pictures have a timeless quality. Candyfloss from the 20s could be candyfloss from the 90s. You never quite know.

And then, furthermore, it encourages people to take out their own cameras and capture their own history of the town.
That image, caught now, could have been taken at any other time in history.

Mass Photography is on show until November 5th.