Sea to the West

Cross Lane Projects presents a new exhibition of a collection of Graham Whitwham’s panoramic pinhole
photographs exploring the Cumbrian Coast.

Cumbria’s coast extends to some 180 miles of often heavily indented coastline and has a rich and fascinating history. To create the imagery for this posthumous exhibition, local photographer Graham Whitwham travelled the Cumbrian Coast for locations of historical interest.

From Silverdale in the south, to the Solway Firth in the north, these images form a photographic essay of this unique coast by highlighting places of significant note and importance.

Whitwham was a keen landscape photographer who, for most of his adult life, lived and worked in South Cumbria. The images originated on traditional film, in a wooden panoramic wide-angle pinhole camera, one of the earliest forms of image making.

This technique characteristically gives a degree of distortion and softness to the images. The cameras have an almost limitless depth of field and a long time exposure blurs or even prevents the capture of rapidly moving objects, adding the dimension of time into the final image. This method allowed Whitwham to capture a likeness of the landscape and bridge the gap to help remind the viewer of the long standing connection with the coast.

This collection of photographs is taken from “Sea to the West”, published shortly before his death in 2021. The title of the book and show recognises the poem of the same name by the late Cumbrian poet, Norman Nicholson of Millom.

The exhibition has been programmed alongside Kendal Mountain Festival.