The Winter Gardens is home to Europe’s second largest theatre (the Opera House) and is one of Blackpool’s most treasured historical buildings. It opened in 1878 and has seen the likes of Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey and a host of West End theatre productions over the years. I’ve been to several gigs (including The Arctic Monkeys and The Subways) there and I also had the fantastic job of photographing NALGAO’s three-day conference throughout the venue back in October 2008. Although the interior decor needs sprucing up and looking after, I personally think that it’s still one of the town’s better assets.
As promised in my last blog post, I thought I would share my experience of my day trip to Macau (which lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta, bordering Guangdong province in the North). I went to China with my Dad and we were both in agreement that it would be a shame for me not to go and explore a little further out.
Having heard that Macau was only a two and a half hour coach ride away, off I went for the day by myself.
On Sunday 23rd November I departed on one of my most eagerly awaited trips in years, South East China & Hong Kong. I’d never visited this side of world before but I had seen countless photographs from the likes of Edward Burtynsky and other global topographers/photographers, but it’s never quite as good as seeing it for yourself.
I arrived in Guangzhou on Monday 24th November and spent the following two days exploring the city and seeing the sites.
As I only had a few days there, I thought I would approach documenting the city in a similar way to my Blackpool project, responding to the journey as I went along.
Last month I was offered a three day photography residency to creatively document NALGAO’s annual conference. Entitled ‘NALGAO Switched On!’, the conference focussed on “the contribution that the arts and creative industries make in building sustainable communities and supporting regeneration”.
The NALGAO conference has become a key date in the national arts calendar and is an important event for local authorities and their delegates.
This annual event is held at a different venue each year, with this years being held at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. The aim of my NALGAO photography residency was to document a creative account of the event, including keynote speakers, breakout sessions and study tours.