All 42 cathedrals in England featured in photographic exhibition being staged next month
Peter Marlow photographing St Edmundsbury Cathedral. Photo: Peter Marlow's assistan, Marcio Suster.
St Edmundsbury Cathedral is to host the next stage of the ambitious exhibition tour of the late Magnum photographer, Peter Marlow’s series “The English Cathedral” from July 4 to 26.
It is a photographic project documenting all 42 of England’s Anglican cathedrals undertaken by the photographer who travelled across England documenting the interiors of the iconic architectural landmarks.
His photographs in the exhibition bring into sharp relief the full splendour of the interiors of some of England’s most magnificent buildings, great symbols of spiritual and architectural power, using only natural light to capture the interiors of the iconic buildings and present them as they would have originally been viewed when they were initially built.
The free exhibition is organised by the Peter Marlow Foundation, the charity set up to continue Peter’s legacy, primarily through photographic educational workshops. The aim is that this ethereal collection of images, will exhibit at each of the 42 cathedrals Peter visited on his photographic pilgrimage across England.
He visited St Edmundsbury Cathedral in 2010 to capture an image of the nave bathed in natural light.
His resultant portrait of the cathedral makes the striking painted hammerbeam roof a focal point. Originally a flat, dark oak roof dating from Tudor times, Victorian congregations were keen for a more ornate decorative replacement.
Following extensive restoration work in the late 19th century by the prolific English Gothic Revival architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott, the hammerbeam roof was installed.
In 1982 it was painted by 20th century church architect, Stephen Dykes Bower, as part of his renovation work of the cathedral. The roof is a colourful focal point to St Edmundsbury Cathedral and clearly portrayed in Peter’s photograph.
His work on “the English Cathedrals’ series started in 2008 when he was commissioned by Royal Mail on the 300th year anniversary of the completion of St Paul’s Cathedral to photograph six cathedrals from across the UK. These were issued as commemorative stamps. So taken was he by these initial magnificent interiors that he set out to photograph all 42, guided over the next three years.
So taken by these initial magnificent interiors that he set out to photograph all 42 cathedrals, guided over the next three years by a copy of English Cathedrals (1989) by Edwin Smith and Olive Cook and a pack of “Anglican Cathedrals of England” Top Trumps Cards.
“What I thought was going to be incredibly simple became intricate, complicated, and utterly absorbing. The journey was memorable and wonderfully hypnotic, a kind of reflective pilgrimage. My cathedral days involved hours of driving and thinking, with my reference Polaroids drying in the sun on the dashboard. England passed by,” he said.
The Very Rev Joe Hawes, Dean of St Edmundsbury, says of the exhibition: “Peter Marlow described the process of his cathedral photography project as a ‘reflective pilgrimage’ and it’s an honour to welcome his photograph of St Edmundsbury, and the accompanying 41 images of our country’s cathedrals, back to the place it was taken.”