A DAZZLING display of photographic skill will go on show from tomorrow (Saturday) at The Beacon Museum in Whitehaven.
Photographer Phil Rigby, who has spent 30 years capturing Cumbria’s people and landscapes for newspapers and magazines, has brought together a collection of his finest work in an exhibition, Portrait of Cumbria, Life and Landscape.
Phil has worked for Cumbria Life as picture editor and has now been a freelance contributing photographer for 12 years, and his exhibition for The Beacon Museum includes many images from the award-winning magazine, plus a selection of other pictures from his private collection.
Visitors will see over 90 stunning photographs of Cumbria’s best-known faces and places with an eclectic mix of literary, artistic and sporting personalities alongside some of the county’s most famous landscapes.
The exhibition first showed at Up Front Gallery near Penrith last year to great acclaim and now visitors in the west of the county will have an opportunity to see Phil’s work.
The photographs are on show by permission of Cumbria Life and Newsquest Cumbria. Many were first seen in the book, Portrait of Cumbria, Life and Landscape, which was published by the magazine and went on to win the 2018 Lakeland Book of the Year prize. It has since become a fixture of coffee tables in Cumbria.
Phil said: “I am thrilled that The Beacon Museum is hosting this exhibition which has been brought up to date with images from the last 18 months.
“Cumbria is full of extraordinary landscapes and people and a special place in which to live and work. I hope visitors enjoy looking at my pictures as much as I have enjoyed taking them.”
Alan Irwin, Business Development Manager at The Beacon Museum, added: “With an exhibition entitled Portrait of Cumbria, one expects to encounter a real sense of place, and this collection delivers with every scene.
“There is a real sense of the story behind every image, and that is the enduring impression having seen this collection. I am delighted to see some of Phil’s most recent work also featured anew within the exhibition, many of which feature faces and places from West Cumbria.”
The exhibition runs in the Harbour Gallery until March 2020. Visitors can also meet the photographer on January 14’s Talking Tuesday event as Phil will be facilitating an open gallery visit.
Telephone 01946 592302 or visit www.thebeacon-whitehaven.co.uk, or the museum’s Facebook for further details.
