"A Brontë Reader", Photographic Exhibition By Helen Burrow

It had been a while since I was at a photography exhibition; the truth is that there are not very many taking place around here where I live in Leeds, or at least I don't hear about them. So I was very pleased and excited to learn about Helen Burrow's photo exhibition running in Dean Clough, Halifax, 9 February - 21 April 2019. What was specially interesting for me is that the photographs are based on Haworth and places associated with the literary Brontë family of whom I am a huge fan. On the first opportunity I took a bus to Halifax and paid my very first visit to the fascinating Dean Clough, a group of 19th century factory buildings, presently used to house various art exhibitions and business venues. Here is a glimpse and a taste of Helen's exhibition which, of course, cannot be compared to the experience of viewing it at the gallery, but it can give a rough idea to those who are unable to attend in person.

I personally was very impressed by what I saw. It was wonderful to see work by another photographer who is a fellow Brontëite and who, like me, takes photos of places with Brontë connections. After retiring from being a mental health nurse Helen did a photography degree to become a qualified photographer. She lives with her photographer husband in Lancashire. Good part of her work is monochrome and so is her "A Brontë Reader" exhibition which consists of cca 40 black and white images in square format. They are very moody images conveying the often broody and even dark atmosphere of Brontë related places as well as the atmosphere emanating from their literary works of art. All the images are low key, some of them perhaps too dark, but I like how Helen is telling us it's ok to go very dark in order to express a feeling or mood. The photos are taken on the inexpensive Holga camera, which is a plastic medium format film camera. You can tell straight away that the photos are taken on film as it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to emulate that film look on digital photos. The images have blurry vignette with just a small part of the image in focus; Helen says that is how she sees the world - "with only a small amount in focus at a time". I love the dreamy, romantic quality the blur creates in the images. The subject matter varies widely from a graveyard detail to buildings, to a scene in open moorland, but each image looks perfect in black and white and generally the way it is presented. I think that Helen has succeeded in expressing how she feels about these places extremely and admiringly well.

Brontë Parsonage in snow, one of Helen Burrow's images at the exhibition. This image was used for the book cover of Juliet Barker's seminal biography of the Brontës         

The exhibition is accompanied by a beautiful booklet containing Helen's images, extracts from letters by members of the Brontë family and their friends, extracts from the Brontë novels, some of Emily Brontë poems and Helen's epilogue on what the Brontës mean to her and why and how they got to inspire her. And there is even an extract from Queen Victoria's diary on reading Jane Eyre!

"A Brontë Reader" exhibition moved me deeply and made me think about my own style of photographing and presenting images of the Brontë places. It has made me see how good these places lend themselves to monochrome photography and has made me want to employ more of black white medium in my own work. It has introduced me to an excellent photographer based not very far from me, but who I somehow didn't know about. I am very much looking forward to exploring and admiring Helen's work further. For those who would like to know more about Helen Burrow and this remarkable exhibition I recommend this article published by the Yorkshire Post.