Photographer Louise Taylor, a long-term dweller of the upper Dale, has spent the past decade documenting the extraordinary collections her father, John Taylor, left behind after his sudden death in 2013.
Her work as a photographer has taken her around the world with the focus on people and places as well as issues often found in rural areas, people and places. She is well-known in this particular form of art and is a founding member of North East arts collective Wideyed and a member of The Photobook Club Collective. Louise is especially renowned for the way in which she presents her work in highly unusual ways.
Her father was a lifelong Lambretta enthusiast, mechanic, compulsive cataloguer, and Weardale tourism ambassador who meticulously organised everything from spare parts and screws to thousands of cigar wrappers, miniature hotel shampoos and every credit card he had ever owned!
As the family prepared to clear his home, Louise began photographing these objects before they were sold, recycled or thrown away. What began as a way of holding on to her father has evolved into Archiving Dad, a deeply personal photographic project exploring grief, memory, collecting and the stories held within ordinary objects.
Louise’s first handbound photobook, SHOOT!, was self-published by Wideyed Editions in 2014, and since then, she has collaborated with Wideyed members on several photobooks and zines. Alongside her personal practice, she runs socially engaged photography projects in the community, focusing on wellbeing, celebrating local identity and heritage, and documenting lived experience.
Louise is now crowdfunding a series of handbound artist photobooks through Kickstarter. The campaign closes on 10th October. If you would like to help her achieve her aim, go to:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/louisetaylor/archiving-dad
