Focus on everyday life in village as gallery hosts ‘meet the artist’ event
You need to meet the artists to understand their passion. Nunnington Galleries owner Kevin Bradshaw.
FOR some, Ampleforth means abbey and college. For those who live there, says photographer Lucy Saggers: “We think village.”
The photographer, who this weekend was one of four at a “meet the artist” event at Nunnington Galleries, has lived in Ampleforth for 16 years, and the community and its landscape is her long-term subject.
Writing about her work, she said: “Like any other village, Ampleforth holds the stories of the lives of its inhabitants. Some families have been here since the
Domesday Book – and may stay forever. Some will soon be gone.
“But right now their lives are here, embedded in this land, overlapping one another, shaping and shaped by each other – intentionally or not.”
Mrs Saggers is working with British social documentary photography publisher Bluecoat on her second book, which will be about Ampleforth and is hopefully due out this year.
She avoids taking pictures of big events, preferring to capture everyday encounters. “That for me is what living in a community is about,” she said.
Freelance wildlife and landscape artist Jonathan Pomroy was also at the event, along with Phil Reynolds, from
York, and Justine Warner, from Sheriff Hutton.
This weekend landscape artists Patrick Smith, from Sheriff Hutton, and Steve Williams, from York, will be at Nunnington Galleries, with artisan Louise Dwyer who reinvents jewellery.
Gallery owner Kevin Bradshaw said: “The arts have been struggling desperately and we wanted to get people interacting with the artists. You need to meet the artists to understand the passion of what they do.”