Harrogate Photographic Society

12/06/2026

Exhibition 2026 - coming soon our online exhibition - watch this space

06/05/2026

The launch of the Kickstarter campaign The North Revisited - published by Image&Reality with a foreword by documentary photographer John Bulmer is live.

You can support the project at https://tinyurl.com/y8jx6jjm

This is the culmination of an 18 month project - one of the largest 'north of England' documentary projects ever funded by Arts Council England - for which Simon Hill revisited the 16 locations visited by John Bulmer for magazines including The Sunday Times Magazine during the 1960s and he has added over 30 additional locations to provide a more complete perspective on the contemporary north of England.

Priced at £30 + p&p, supporters of the Kickstarter campaign can secure a first edition of the book - or pledge for a signed copy and have their support recognised in the book’s list of subscribers.

A joint exhibition between Simon Hill and John Bulmer will be held at Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre from 10 October 2026 to 31 January 2027. A special open day will be held at the Centre on Saturday 8 October when John and Simon Hill will be in conversation with the BBC's Mark Radcliffe.

Please support the project, spread the word, and help bring The North Revisited to life.

A contemporary portrait of the North of England by Simon Hill, inspired by John Bulmer's seminal work of the 1960s.

28/04/2026

Welcome to our new president Steve Preston for 2026/27

28/04/2026

Our winter programme of talks and activities may have ended but we have a selection of outings and events that members will participate in. Why not come along and meet members?

MAY

The undated outing for May is to York - easily reached by train or park and ride. – see https://visityork.org and https://www.discovergoodramgate.co.ukand https://www.railwaymuseum.org.uk

The dated outing is Keighley & Worth Valley Railway 1940s weekend - 16–17 May. More details at https://1940sweekend.co.uk Tickets can be bought online

JUNE

The Undated outing is - Aspects of Airedale, urban & rural, the Industrial Revolution. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airedale https://www.visitbradford.com/explore/saltaire

Dated

Yorkshire Puffin Festival’ at Flamborough Cliffs on 6 & 7 June – https://www.ywt.org.uk/yorkshire-puffin-festival/plan-your-adventure

‘Cold War wheels’ (Cars & bikes of the 60s, 70s & 80s) at the Yorkshire Air Museum, Elvington, nr. York – 21 June – see https://yorkshireairmuseum.org/plan-your-visit/events/ Tickets can be bought online‘

Skipton in the 14th Century’ – 27-28 June – https://www.welcometoskipton.com/events/skipton-during-the-14th-century/Tickets can be bought online.

There’s also Skipton Sheep Day on 28 June - https://www.welcometoskipton.com/events/sheep-day/

JULY

The Undated outing is ‘Saltburn and Paddy’s Hole’. Saltburn always provides good photo opportunities and Paddy’s Hole is good to visit – https://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/places-to-go/saltburn-by-the-sea https://fabulousnorth.com/paddys-hole/

Dated

Durham Coach trip, organised by Mike Hudson – 18 July

The “Gravity Games’ at Harewood Hill Climb – 25-26 July – Soapbox racing – Tickets can be bought online - https://www.gravity-games.co.ukAUGUST

No undated outing in August, but a bumper bundle of dated ones.

For English Civil war enactment fans – Skipton Castle – ‘The Trayned Bandes, the English Civil War’ – 1-2 August https://www.welcometoskipton.com/events/trayned-bandes-the-english-civil-war/ Tickets can be bought online.

Ripley Show – a local event – 9 August – https://www.ripleyshow.co.uk - Tickets can be bought online

‘G-George 1940s Weekend’, Breighton Airfield, near Selby - 15-16 August – A Spitfire evening display is scheduled – Rare vintage aircraft in the air and on the ground – reenactor village – tickets can be bought online - https://temp.realaero.com/bugle.html

A late 19th century secluded harbor and part of the South Gare Breakwater.

13/04/2026

Winner of the Centenary Medal 2025/26 - Alistair How, Lake Bled

31/03/2026

A winning evening for Michelle Bray, securing joint winners for the monthly PDI competition with A Lowry street scene, Durham and Stained Glass Wings. The former just slightly more popular with club members who voted. Also commended Not Quite Airborne by Brian Atter, and Autumnal Musings by Rozalia Sz

09/03/2026

Our winner this evening for the panel competition - Michelle Bray - Gannets at Bempton Cliffs

24/02/2026

Visitors are very welcome to attend one of our keynote speakers on Monday, April 20, 2026

Simon Hill - Hon FRPS - President, Royal Photographic Society

The North Revisited

Marking the 60th anniversary of The Sunday Times Magazine 1965 Special Issue on ‘The North’, Arts Council England has provided the major funding for this year-long documentary project which builds on the work of John Bulmer FRPS, whose evocative images of the north of England, featured in the ‘65 Special Edition, became a cornerstone of British documentary photography.

Once synonymous with heavy industry, northern towns and cities are now leveraging a greater diversity of employment and are striving to become vibrant cultural hubs. They are embracing their rich industrial heritage and creating new communities and identities. Commercial innovation, the emergence of hi-tech industry, new retail, leisure, and visitor attractions, are leveraging economic growth.

This commission to produce ‘The North Revisited’ - awarded to a single photographer ... HPS Member and RPS President, Simon Hill HonFRPS – is the largest ever ACE-funded photography project documenting the north of England. More a ‘documentary’ than an ‘arts’ project, the ambition is to capture the evolving and contemporary identity of ‘The North’ through the unique vision of a single photographer.

The project will create a national archive of over 4000 photographs and, as a homage to Bulmer’s pioneering colour work, it will be shot on Phoenix 200, an experimental 35mm colour film designed and manufactured in the north of England by Harman Technology. This ‘quirky’, grainy, high contrast, colour-saturated film provides an analogue aesthetic that simultaneously harmonises with Bulmer’s 1960 colour photographs while affording a unique character to this modern interpretation of what has become an iconic photographic legacy.

‘The North Revisited’ revisits the towns and cities photographed by Bulmer, plus over 20 other events and locations, to document this redefining of the North; recording and celebrating the diverse communities for which the northern counties are now home. But the project does not turn a ‘blind eye’ to the problems and challenges that still exist and with which so many former industrial communities continue to struggle.

For more information on the project visit:

The North Revisited is a year-long commission - funded by Arts Council England - through which Simon Hill HonFRPS will create, exhibit and publish a social historical photo-documentary of the north of England as a revisiting of 'The North’ by Sunday Times photographer John Bulmer in the 1960s.

24/02/2026

Our final PDI judging session by Massimiliano Malisan. Some keenly contested classes. The winners are Architecture and man-made - Paul McGrath, To***co Warehouse Detail, Liverpool. Travel - Katrina Brayshaw, After the rain. Mono - Ian Beck, Otter Island, Derwent Water. Street - Mike Gosling, The Discussion

17/02/2026

Another busy evening of judging. Creative - Gravitational Pull, Kelvin Smith, Landscape - Reflections on still water, Michelle Bray, Outings - Sealed Knot facing the enemy, Hazel Graves, Pictorial - Portrait of Rolo, Rozalia Szaranik