CityLife

Don's northern whimsy

A LEADING Manchester-based photographer's first major exhibition is about to open. Manchester Art Gallery is staging an exhibition of 60 pictures taken by Don McPhee during his 33-year career working from The Guardian's northern office.

Don has personally chosen the images, which depict subjects as diverse as Christmas time in Oldham to striking mineworkers in Yorkshire, for his one-man show entitled The View From Manchester.

"The elements of a news picture have to contain all the ingredients of what that story is about," he says, "and when you look back over the photos you've taken, the images inevitably end up marking the passage of time.

"But I consciously tried to keep all the pictures included in this exhibition whimsical and light-hearted."

He says that some of his favourite images are the six photos which portray the striking miners in the early 1980s.

During his career, Manchester-born Don has been sent on assignments across the world, including Spain's first post-Franco elections, two US presidential elections and Nelson Mandela on the campaign trail in South Africa.

The exhibition will run at Manchester Art Gallery from tomorrow until Sunday, April 3.