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An exhibition of photographs by internationally acclaimed photographer David Stewart.  
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Project Areas

Research | Creative Direction | Project Management | Arts Commissioning |Budget Control |Fundraising

Music: Frankie Roberts

Voice-over: Ian Hastings

Subjects

In a call out for participants through radio, social media and word of mouth, we invited members of the public to share their stories of how they, or their families, came to be in Morecambe. From Uzbekistan to France and from Russia to Somaliland, these participants became the subjects of the photographs, styled and shot by David Stewart.

Nelli Watmough | Karina Velichko | Wren Rawcliffe Kemp | Stanley Rawcliffe Kemp | Inma Elliot | Neil Pickup |

Paolo Brucciani | Maureen Elliot | José Luís Calvo | Gina Thistlethwaite | Pete Moser | Olesya Krijenovskaya |

Nicola Garrett | Michel Gueyrard

“I have called this area home all my life and have always been aware, being of Polish descent, of the presence of people who have come into and enriched our communities. Not least the Brucciani family and the café that has been a feature of families’ lives here for generations. It’s not easy to leave the place you have grown up and each of the stories told in and beside these photographs show as much risk and sacrifice as they do joy and the happy-ever-afters. It's been a pleasure and an honour to meet and work with the participants who have shared their journeys with us”

- Lauren Zawadzki, Co-director of Deco Publique

About Destination Morecambe

The reasons why people came changed over time: after WWII right through to the 1970s, Morecambe in season was bustling with people, colour, and life - a place of wonder and excitement that some of our subjects still remember and speak of with enormous fondness. Those times have never left them; they remember and reflect on those glories. 

As the world has changed so has Morecambe’s fortunes. Changing aspirations coupled with the arrival of cheap overseas package holidays spelt a long period of hardship for many British seaside towns, Morecambe included. After several decades of this, a few may suggest that Morecambe is still a shadow of its former self, however, people still come and settle here. Its coastal geographical location helped as regards the development of nuclear power and natural gas in the Bay, bringing with it new people to work in those industries.

Now, many believe we are at an inflection point historically. The metropolitan centres are seeing something of a demographic shift as people are increasingly working from home.  Simultaneously there is a desire to live in smaller towns with easy access to spacious green countryside and coastal scenery, coupled with good digital communication links. Morecambe scores high on all these counts and is naturally starting to see its share of these new developments.

Meanwhile, despite all these changes, some things stay the same - not least the legendary scenery and sunsets of Morecambe Bay. And then there is the splendid Art Deco interior of Brucciani’s Café, virtually unchanged since the 1930s. An astonishing piece of Morecambe history providing the unique setting for this shoot. 

Welcome to Destination Morecambe.

About David Stewart

David Stewart is an internationally renowned photographer who specialises in Large Format technique. Through this highly detailed imagery, he builds narratives around the portrayed characters.  Stewart has photographed everyone from The Clash to The Ramones. He began his career in Morecambe in the 1980’s as a young photographer, capturing the locals and tourists on Morecambe’s seafront.

In 1995 he directed and produced a short film "Cabbage" which was nominated for a BAFTA. Accompanying the film is a series of surrealist photographic images in tribute to the much-maligned vegetable.

Stewart won The Taylor Wessing portrait prize in 2015. He had been previously shortlisted for the Photographic Portrait Prize in 2007 and accepted a further fourteen times between 1995 and 2012 each time exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

In 2016 Stewart was presented with The Royal Photographic Society award for outstanding achievement and excellence in the fields of Editorial, Advertising and Fashion Photography.

“For this project I chose to shoot the portraits on 120 roll film which is the way it would have been done 40 years ago when I first started my career. Working with the camera on a tripod the portraits become more constructed. Creating work in this more traditional way is fast being overlooked, and ultimately lost, in favour of using digital methods. These portraits can be considered as a reaction against the ubiquity of photography heralded by the rise of social media and the notion of the universal photographer.”

Click here to view David Stewart’s Website

About The White Elephant Contemporary

The White Elephant Contemporary promotes quality not quotas. It is a cultural collaborative initiative that took over from where the ground-breaking White Elephant Gallery, Morecambe, left off when it closed in August 2021. Like the gallery its mission is to use culture as a positive force to bring together people from different backgrounds and spheres of operation to foster new relationships and stimulate good conversations. 

At the centre of The White Elephant Contemporary are Paul Kondras and Neil Wilson, an unlikely pairing, who between them come from contrasting backgrounds including advertising, television and theatre, psychiatry, visual art, and class struggle.  They seem to have access to some great resources, not least the range of assistants and consultants who help them make it all come together. Amongst this number are the illustrious characters Oulan Nagardo and Rabo Karabekian who between them can offer a remarkable palette of know-how, unique experiences, wisdom, and good humour.  

“David Stewart is to Morecambe what David Hockney is to Yorkshire, an artist rooted in the area, though internationally appreciated. The White Elephant Gallery hosted two of David’s exhibitions, “Fogeys'' and “Paid content” both hugely successful, and so it was a no-brainer when David proposed a project with a narrative based on his early days in Morecambe, taking pictures on the promenade. Using the iconic Brucciani’s cafe as a studio film set, carefully art directed as is his style, the results are not just portraits but capture the incredible emotional journey people made to make Morecambe their home.”

- Paul Kondras, White Elephant Contemporary Art

Behind the Scenes

These photographs were taken by Ginny Koppenhol during the Destination Morecambe shoot days at Brucciani’s cafe, Morecambe.

Credits:

Portrait photography - David Stewart

Header image of webpage - Ginny Koppenhol

Shoot location - Brucciani of Morecambe

Exhibition poster and publication design - Charlie Kondras