Michaela Yearwood-Dan at the Whitworth, Exhibition Opening

Exhibition opening at the Whitworth, Manchester

I photographed the opening of Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. The exhibition brings together painting, ceramics and sound across several rooms in the gallery, with works placed so the installation shifts as you move through it.

I photographed the opening as it unfolded across the evening. I photographed the artist, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, in formal portraits within the space, as well as in more informal moments with friends and visitors during the opening. Alongside that, I photographed people moving through the exhibition, stopping to look closely at the work, talking, and circulating between rooms.

Michaela Yearwood-Dan

Michaela Yearwood-Dan works across painting, ceramics, installation and sound. Her paintings are built through layered surfaces of colour, gesture and handwritten text that sits directly within the image rather than as separate annotation. The work often holds fragments of writing within dense painterly surfaces, where image and language sit together.

She is represented by Hauser & Wirth and Marianne Boesky Gallery, and her work is shown internationally across institutional and gallery contexts.

Critical writing on the work

Writing on her practice often focuses on how abstraction and language sit alongside personal and cultural reference. In British Vogue, Charlotte Jansen describes her paintings as combining “confession, nostalgia and identity.”

The same article also notes the range of references within her work, from “queer communal spaces and carnival to Caribbean flora and fauna, to spiritual rituals and, very often, music.”

In exhibition texts for The Practice of Liberation at the Whitworth, her use of language is described as “fragments of diaristic writing alongside adapted and borrowed texts and lyrics,” which are integrated directly into the surface of the paintings.

Photographing the opening

I always enjoy working at the Whitworth. The building has a natural ease for photographing people within it, and the way exhibitions sit within its architecture supports that. There is a steady flow of movement during openings like this, which allows for a mix of portrait work, observation and social documentation without needing to separate those approaches.

It’s a privilege to work in environments where the architecture, the exhibition, and the people all sit together in the same frame. I am currently accepting commissions for exhibition photography, artist portraits and cultural documentation.

Delaine Le Bas: Un-Fair-Ground Exhibition Photography at The Whitworth

At the opening of Un-Fair-Ground at The Whitworth in Manchester, artist Delaine Le Bas transformed the gallery into an immersive environment using layered textiles, painted slogans, and fairground imagery. The exhibition is designed to be experienced as a single, cohesive space rather than a series of separate works, inviting visitors to engage with themes of visibility, representation, and resistance.

The Un-Fair-Ground Mural

The centerpiece of the exhibition is the large-scale mural Un-Fair-Ground, originally created for Glastonbury Festival and reworked for The Whitworth. Its bold graphic style and dramatic lettering create a sense of spectacle while provoking reflection on social and cultural visibility. Photography captured the scale and intricacy of the mural, emphasizing how the work dominates the gallery space and anchors the exhibition’s narrative.

Witch House and Domestic Resistance

Another significant work, Witch House, incorporates wallpaper and stitched phrases to reframe domestic space as a site of resistance. Photography highlights the layered textures, hand-crafted details, and the way Le Bas uses domestic motifs to explore complex social commentary.

Performance and Shared Experience

During the opening evening, performance elements brought the exhibition to life, shifting the atmosphere and drawing audiences together. Photography captured these moments of interaction, reinforcing the exhibition’s focus on shared experience and the dynamic relationship between art, space, and visitor engagement.

Exhibition Details

Delaine Le Bas: Un-Fair-Ground is on display at The Whitworth, Manchester until 31 May. Visitors can experience a thought-provoking combination of textile art, murals, and performance that challenges traditional notions of visibility, community, and representation.

Photographing the Manchester Artist Teacher Collective

Manchester Artist Teacher Collective (MATC) is a group of artist teachers from secondary schools and colleges across Manchester, and gallery educators from Manchester Art Gallery, the Whitworth and HOME. They foster collaboration between art educators, local artists, studios and gallery spaces. Through this collaboration, they seek to develop and share artistic and educational expertise, enabling teachers to engage with contemporary practices and sustained personal making. By centring on the artist teachers’ own creative development, the collective highlights the local cultural ecology and future opportunities within Manchester for the young people they teach. 

Suzanne Lacy at Whitworth Art Gallery

Event Photography: Suzanne Lacy – What Kind of City? A Manual for Social Change | The Whitworth, Manchester

I had the privilege of working with The Whitworth to photograph the opening of What Kind of City? A Manual for Social Change, the first major UK presentation of works by US artist Suzanne Lacy, a pioneer of socially engaged practice and community organising for nearly five decades.

The exhibition brings together multiple projects from Lacy’s extensive career, highlighting her commitment to using art as a tool for social change. Across her work, Lacy has consistently explored issues such as youth engagement, gender equity, social cohesion, and civic participation. What Kind of City? continues this focus by presenting works that encourage dialogue and collective action around the structures, challenges, and opportunities that shape urban life.

Photographing the Exhibition Opening and Artist’s Talk

Documenting exhibition openings requires capturing the atmosphere of the event, the artist in conversation, and audience engagement with the works. At the Suzanne Lacy opening, I photographed Lacy interacting with attendees, leading discussions during her artist’s talk, and engaging with curators and participants.

Event photography in this context provides a record that serves multiple purposes. Images are used for press coverage, marketing, social media, and archival documentation while conveying the essence of the exhibition: its ideas, engagement, and impact on the public.

Situating What Kind of City? in Suzanne Lacy’s Oeuvre

Suzanne Lacy has spent decades exploring the intersection of art, activism, and social practice. From her early performances in the 1970s addressing gender and public space, to large-scale public interventions in the 1990s and 2000s, her work consistently involves collaboration with communities, creating participatory experiences that address societal issues directly.

What Kind of City? reflects this legacy by focusing on pressing themes including youth agency, borders, social cohesion, and opportunities for older women. The exhibition frames these issues through Lacy’s lens of engagement and empowerment, presenting her work as both artistic practice and a guide for social action. Photography captures this interplay between artwork, artist, and audience, showing the exhibition not just as a collection of objects but as an active space of dialogue and reflection.

The Whitworth’s Role in Community Engagement

The Whitworth has long been committed to socially engaged programming and public participation. By presenting Suzanne Lacy’s work, the institution positions itself as a space where art intersects with civic dialogue.

Documenting the exhibition opening and artist’s talk demonstrates the Whitworth’s dedication to fostering connections between artists, communities, and audiences. Professional photography captures the human dimension of the event, reflecting both the ideas of the exhibition and the engagement of participants.

Why Professional Photography Matters for Exhibitions

High-quality photography is essential for institutions to communicate the significance of exhibitions. Images capture the artworks themselves, audience responses, and the environment in which these interactions take place. For socially engaged work like Lacy’s, photography is particularly important, as it records collaborative, performative, and participatory elements that might otherwise exist only in the moment.

Photographs from What Kind of City? provide a visual record for press, marketing, social media, and archives while highlighting the ways in which art can inspire dialogue and social action. By documenting both the artist and the audience, photography demonstrates the exhibition’s reach and impact.

Capturing the Dialogue Between Art and Community

What Kind of City? is designed to operate as a manual for equitable transformation. Photographing the opening involved documenting Lacy’s talk, audience interactions, and the curatorial context of the exhibition. These images show how art can facilitate civic engagement, prompt discussion, and provide insight into the challenges and opportunities facing urban communities.

Through careful observation and composition, the photographs preserve the exhibition’s central idea: that art can be a catalyst for dialogue, reflection, and action, situating Lacy’s practice as both relevant and influential within contemporary socially engaged art.

Conclusion

Thanks again to The Whitworth for inviting me to document this important exhibition. Photographing What Kind of City? A Manual for Social Change offered an opportunity to capture Suzanne Lacy’s longstanding commitment to social practice while highlighting the interaction between her work, the audience, and the wider community. The images serve as a professional record of an exhibition that exemplifies the power of art to foster dialogue, participation, and meaningful social engagement.

Cloud Studies by Forensic Architecture

Event Photography: Cloud Studies by Forensic Architecture | Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

I recently photographed the opening of Cloud Studies by Forensic Architecture, currently on display at Whitworth Art Gallery as part of the Manchester International Festival. The exhibition presents a powerful investigation into the politics, dynamics, and consequences of toxic clouds, from chemical dispersals to herbicides and smoke, highlighting their impact on communities, environments, and urban spaces.

Cloud Studies was originally created for the exhibition Critical Zones: Observatories for Earthly Politics at ZKM Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe. Alongside the physical installation, the project is also accessible via the virtual exhibition platform, offering multiple perspectives on how clouds, both literal and metaphorical, shape and are shaped by social and political forces.

Photographing the Exhibition Opening

Documenting exhibitions like Cloud Studies requires attention to detail, context, and the conceptual framing of the work. At the opening, I captured the interaction between visitors and the installation, as well as moments from the curatorial introduction and discussions with the artists. Photography in this context provides a professional record for press, marketing, and digital archives, while also helping audiences engage with the critical and often challenging themes of the work.

In exhibitions addressing complex and politically charged subject matter, event photography plays a key role in communicating the atmosphere of the exhibition, the scale and detail of the works, and the audience’s engagement with them.

Understanding Cloud Studies

Forensic Architecture’s Cloud Studies investigates the mobilization of toxic clouds across scales, durations, and geographies. Tear gas is used to disperse crowds in protests, white phosphorus and chlorine gas are deployed in cities to spread terror, herbicides are sprayed from airplanes to displace populations, and fires are set to erase forests for industrial plantations. These clouds, deployed by state and corporate powers, demonstrate the entanglement of environmental and political violence.

The project challenges traditional forms of analysis by highlighting that “every contact leaves a trace.” Clouds are not only transformations of air, smoke, and chemicals—they are dynamic systems governed by complex, nonlinear, and multi-causal processes. Forensic Architecture traces these invisible dynamics, making the intangible visible and measurable.

Photography as a Record of Critical and Experimental Art

Professional photography is essential for exhibitions that operate at the intersection of art, research, and activism. In Cloud Studies, capturing the installation, its visual elements, and audience interaction helps convey the conceptual depth and urgency of the work. Photography preserves both the formal qualities of the artwork and the experiential response of the visitors, providing a lasting record for the artists, the gallery, and future audiences.

Photographs of installations like Cloud Studies also help bridge physical and virtual experiences, allowing online audiences to understand the spatial, visual, and political dimensions of the work.

The Epistemological Dimension of Clouds

Historically, clouds have posed challenges for painters and artists, often moving faster than artistic techniques could capture. Today, toxic and politically charged clouds operate on both physical and epistemological levels. Climate denial, chemical attacks, and industrial pollution create uncertainty and confusion, requiring new ways to observe, document, and respond.

Cloud Studies positions the viewer in relation to these dynamics, and through photography, we can translate the abstract and diffuse nature of clouds into a visible, comprehensible form. Images document how audiences experience the installation and how the exhibition communicates critical insights about environmental and political crises.

Conclusion

Photographing Cloud Studies at Whitworth Art Gallery allowed me to capture the intersections of art, research, and social investigation central to Forensic Architecture’s work. These images provide a professional record of an exhibition that interrogates how clouds—chemical, environmental, and epistemological—shape our world, and how art can make these forces visible, tangible, and actionable.

Whitworth Young Contemporaries

Portrait Photography: Whitworth Young Contemporaries

I recently photographed some of the Whitworth Young Contemporaries, a programme at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester that supports emerging artists and creatives. The portraits capture the diversity, creativity, and individuality of the participants, highlighting both their artistic identity and their connection to the gallery community.

Capturing Young Artists

Portrait photography for programmes like the Whitworth Young Contemporaries focuses on personality, presence, and storytelling. The aim was to create images that are authentic and engaging, reflecting the unique qualities of each participant while providing professional material for marketing, social media, and archives.

By photographing the artists in a relaxed and creative environment, the portraits convey both confidence and curiosity, giving audiences a sense of the talent and potential nurtured through the Whitworth’s programme.

Why Professional Portrait Photography Matters

High-quality images of young artists help showcase the impact of programmes like the Whitworth Young Contemporaries. Photographs communicate the individuality of participants, illustrate the gallery’s support for emerging talent, and provide content for exhibitions, press, and online platforms.

Professional portrait photography creates a visual narrative that complements the programme’s goals, connecting audiences with the people behind the art and highlighting the gallery’s role in fostering creative development.

Conclusion

Photographing the Whitworth Young Contemporaries was a rewarding experience, providing portraits that capture the personality, creativity, and individuality of emerging artists. These images help the gallery communicate the energy and talent of its participants while creating a lasting visual record of the programme.

Karsten Schubert

Karsten Andreas Schubert, art dealer and gallerist, born 12 August 1961; died 30 July 2019

Alistair Hudson

Portrait of Alistair Hudson, Director of Manchester Art Gallery and The Whitworth

I photographed Alistair Hudson, director of Manchester Art Gallery and The Whitworth, during the opening of Alison Wilding’s exhibition at the Whitworth in February 2018. The exhibition, including her work in the Wyoming series, brought together gallery staff, artists, and visitors to celebrate one of the most significant contemporary sculpture presentations at the gallery in recent years. The Wyoming works exemplify Wilding’s exploration of material, form, and spatial relationships, making this exhibition a key moment in the Whitworth’s programme.

Alistair Hudson is a British curator and museum director with a long career in the cultural sector, known for championing the role of art as a tool for social change and education. Before taking up the dual directorship of Manchester Art Gallery and The Whitworth, he was director of the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima), where he developed the concept of the “Useful Museum,” positioning the institution as a centre for community engagement and artistic relevance. Prior to that he spent a decade as deputy director of Grizedale Arts in the Lake District, recognised for radical approaches to working with artists and communities. Earlier in his career he worked at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London and at The Government Art Collection, devising public art strategies.

During his time in Manchester, Hudson also held an honorary professorship at the University of Manchester, promoting a vision of cultural institutions as active spaces for social engagement and learning. In 2023 he moved on to become the Artistic‑Scientific Director and Chairman of the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany, a leading institution at the intersection of art, technology, and media.

Photographing Hudson at the opening involved capturing both formal and candid moments, documenting his presence, interactions with guests, and the dynamic environment of the Whitworth during this key exhibition launch. The images provide a visual record of the event, supporting the gallery’s marketing and archival needs while illustrating the presence and role of the gallery director.