Damian Courage - Photography

18/01/2025

For the second year I have a piece hanging at the Grundy Open in Blackpool.

This is a darkroom print of an accidental multiple exposure shot on a Nikon FE.

15/03/2024

📷🎞Learn the basics of black and white film photography at Blackpool Community Darkroom in Aunty Social.

Start with an unshot film and finish the relaxed three session course at your own time and pace, having completed shooting, developing and printing within a traditional Darkroom experience.

The first step is to join our monthly photo walk. This month it's on 24th March at 10AM in Stanley Park. Here you will spend two and a half hours with our friendly and experienced Darkroom practitioners. They are all graduates and professional photographers, on hand for advice and to answer questions (£5).

If you need a 35mm camera to use we have some to borrow for the duration of the walk. There is also film to purchase (£5 per film). Please let us know at time of booking.

Once you have an exposed film, book on to a developing workshop. In a two hour session our practitioners will take you though processing the black and white film you bring step by step. You will be taught such things as how to load your film on to a spool in a dark bag, the importance of temperature and the mechanics and timings of chemical agitation. With a focus on developing darkroom confidence and skills, you will leave the workshop with the knowledge of basic black and white film processing and your freshly dried negatives in a protective sleeve (£21.50).

The third session will see you learning how to use an enlarger under red light conditions. We will guide you in producing a traditional hand made black and white darkroom print from your 35mm negative. Our practitioners will show you how to find the focus in the grain and produce test strips to determine the best exposure for your print. They will explain how to dodge and burn your print to get the best possible outcome (£21.50).

Booking for all the sessions is essential, email [email protected]

The development and print sessions are ongoing and run when needed. Please email with your time requirements and we will do our best to fit you in. Our normal opening days are Thursday, Friday and Saturday with other times available, including evenings, depending on our practitioners availability.

Once you have completed the initial darkroom based sessions and induction, you will be able to book time in the Darkroom by the hour and continue your analogue journey.

Please email with any additional access needs.

Important physical access info: Aunty Social is in the process of having a lift installed. Access to the Darkroom is up a flight of fourteen steps, turn a corner and two more steps. There is a loo on the same level as the Darkroom

09/03/2024

LS Lowry’s “Going to the Match” is now on at the Grundy. It’s so impressive to see in person. Pop down, it’s there for the rest of the month.

Don’t forget, my picture is still up in the Open, it’s on the left wall as you walk in to the main room, the Lowry is through the door on the right wall, past the schools’ exhibition. The J C Robinson exhibition is on too, lots about his architecture in Blackpool.

LS Lowry’s masterpiece 'Going to the Match' is visiting Blackpool!

The painting's exhibition opens tomorrow (Saturday 2 March) at the Grundy Art Gallery, and runs until 30 March 2024.

Going to the Match is Lowry’s best-known and most-popular picture, loved by visitors of all ages. The 1953 painting shows fans arriving for a Bolton Wanderers game and celebrates a quintessentially Northern experience.

Entrance to the Grundy Art Gallery is free - no booking required!

The exhibition is supported by a grant from Arts Council England's National Lottery Project Grant programme. Going to the Match has left its home at The Lowry, Salford and begun a year-long tour of five North West venues.

During exhibitions, the Grundy (located at Queens St, Blackpool, FY1 1PU) is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-4.45pm (last admission 4.20pm). The gallery is closed on Sundays, Mondays and bank holidays.

Find out more ⤏ tinyurl.com/GrundyLowryMar24

The Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation

23/02/2024

Gorgeous Golden keeping watch on the streets of York.

16/02/2024

Fancy trying analogue photography? Look no further!

15/02/2024

Fantastic exhibition at HiveArts. Some great work by photographers local to Blackpool taken at The Alternative Studio. Worth a visit, be quick, it closes Monday!

The coffee downstairs is fantastic too!

📸 Dive into a visual feast at The Alternative Studio & HIVEArts' week-long exhibition! 🌟 Join us from Feb 12-19 to discover captivating images captured by talented North West photographers. 🎉 Don't miss this unique showcase – unleash the power of creativity through the lens! 📷✨

12/02/2024

Speedy e-bike.

Slow shutter speed panning shot of a cyclist on an e-bike at London's Marble Arch. Standing out with a sharp suit and loud shoes as they make their way down Park Lane.

07/02/2024

03/02/2024

Magnificent red stag. Image taken at Harewood House in Leeds in 2020. Harewood House has many red, muntjac and fallow deer, as well as a group of red kites.

This stag didn't seem to mind me nearby, although there is a pond between us, and after having been laid down for a while, stood up, grazed, looked down the lens and walked off.

24/01/2024

It is a privilege to have my image "X" accepted by The Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool for the Open 2024.

The exhibition is on until March 30th, while admission is free, the gallery runs on a donation basis. There is fantastic breadth of art from Fylde Coast artists on display, as well as two other locally themed exhibitions, so please do attend if you can. You can see some of the other artwork located near my photograph in the images below.

https://www.thegrundy.org/whats-on/single/open-2024/