Current Exhibition

Archiving Dad by Louise Taylor

Sunday 1st November to Saturday 5th December 2026

Louise and I would extend a warm invitation to the opening and book launch of ‘Archiving Dad’ on Sunday 1st Nov 11-4pm. Complimentary tea and cake will be served.

Biography

Louise Taylor is a socially engaged photographer based in rural County Durham. Her practice spans community-based work exploring rural issues, people and place, and more personal work shaped by family, memory and everyday life. Rooted in a strong connection to the land, her work explores the stories that connect us to the places we inhabit and the lives we lead.

Louise is a founding member of North East arts collective Wideyed and a member of The Photobook Club Collective. She is interested in presenting her work in unexpected ways, with each opportunity offering a chance to reimagine it for a new context or audience.

Louise

”Archiving Dad’ Artist Statement

Archiving Dad began following the sudden and unexpected death of my dad, John Taylor, in 2013.

Dad was our family’s mechanic, handyman, builder, plumber, accountant and all-round problem solver. He had a tool for every job and a ‘thing’ for every occasion, all meticulously organised in his garage and workshop. He was both a collector and an extraordinarily thorough cataloguer, keeping drawers of ‘useful things’ alongside collections of everyday objects, photographs and records documenting his life.

Some collections were bizarre: a huge water-cooler bottle filled with miniature hotel shampoos, thousands of cigar wrappers, beer bottles and every credit card he’d ever been issued. Others told stories of family life, from painstakingly documented car and motorbike restorations to photographs and records of the pets we’d shared our lives with. There were plans for glass bottle walls, credit card collages and wine cork pinboards, although none ever came to fruition.

When my mum decided to sell their home, I began photographing Dad’s collections before his treasured possessions were binned, recycled, scrapped or sold. What began as an attempt to preserve these objects became a way of remembering Dad, making sense of grief and exploring how the things we leave behind can tell the story of a life.