Stunning photographs that have been made over the past sixty years have gone on display at South West Image Bank, 25 Parade, Barbican, Plymouth. Society member Roy J Westlake ARPS's images capture the essence of life in the South West.

Roy started to dabble in photography before the Second World War with a camera that he bought from Woolworths, he then graduated to a Box Brownie. He has been a member of the Plymouth Camera Club for forty years before going on to try and sell pictures commercially. He joined The Royal Photographic Society in the 1960s and soon became an Associate. He is still member today.

The photographs that are on display document the building of the Civic Centre, the Visit of HRH Queen Elizabeth the second her visit to Plymouth in 1962 when she officially opened the Civic Centre. As well as everyday life in the South West. Along side the prints in the exhibition is a book or Westlake’s photographs titled “Preservation Matter” this contains a further forty carefully selected photographs from Westlake’s archive.

The project has been curated by SWIB Photographer Simon Gomery. He said, “Every viewer reads the narrative of the image in a different way, we all have different ways of seeing” “Roy’s photographs are a fine recordings of everyday life in the South West, his eye isJ Westlake ARPS sympathetic to the subject”. “Roy’s photographs have now become important social documents in the history of the South West”.

The exhibition will run until 30 January 2013, and admission is free, SWIB is open Mon-Friday 9am-5pm and some Saturdays. Please phone SWIB if you would like a tour of the Archive. Prints from the exhibition are on sale from SWIB. Copies of the book are available via the SWIB website, from the online publisher, Blurb Books. 

See: http://www.southwestimagebank.com/