Northern Souls...

I met up with Paul Wolfgang Webster today in his Cheadle Hulme Gallery. Paul is a fine art photographer and creator of "Made In The North", a documentary-type collection of portraits of people from our region. Familiar celebrities, legends of rock music, influential figures and the not so famous all sit alongside each other in his remarkable body of work. Iconic images of Tony Wilson, Sir Alex Ferguson, Brian Cox, Alan Bennett, Arthur Scargill, Ken Dodd, Bernard Manning, Johnny Marr, Frank Foo Foo Lammar, Terry Waite... the list goes on, reading like an who's-who of northern and national culture that dates back to the mid-90's and is an ever-growing historical archive. Paul has portraits in the National Portrait Gallery and numerous successful exhibitions. I first met Paul about a year go, he doesn't remember, but I won't forget being blown away by his images, stories and undoubted talent. I had already seen many of his shots without knowing who the photographer actually was, so to put a name and face to these photographs was special for me. I renewed our acquaintance today and had a great chat, cup of tea and kicked around some great ideas that he has for collaborative work between local photographers. If you want to know more about Paul's images (and you should!) then check out his website here, you will not be disappointed.