Journal | Work in Progress - Mike Kelly Photography

Bury OPEN 2025 - Three Works Selected + Cass Art Exhibition Award & Solo Show

I’m delighted to share that all three of my submitted pieces have been selected for the Bury Art Museum Open 2025, from over 500 entries. I was also awarded the Cass Art Exhibition Award, which includes a two-week solo exhibition at the Cass Art gallery in Manchester. Watch this space for details on that.

After the award ceremony it was fantastic to chat with Malcolm Garrett MBE, who shared some very useful insight on the OPEN judging process and his thoughts on photography and art in general. A great day all round.

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Journal | Work in Progress - Mike Kelly Photography

BLOOD OLIVE | BLACK OAK

Early digital tests of this concept. The original images are photographs from Provence (olive) and Eskdale (oak).

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NOT OLIVES

I went to Provence to photograph olive canopies. These are not the olives I was looking for.

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HARE CLOUGH

Photos from the route of the weavers uprising, ahead of the 2026 bicentenary. Read more here: https://www.weavers-uprising.org.uk . The pair of deer in the last but one picture were a complete surprise when I scanned the photos at home.

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CANOPY | Framing Tests

Each frame includes three layers of Plexiglass, each separated by narrow spacing blocks. Big thank you to Studio 51 for the printing and to Framing Manchester for the careful assembly. Both were very patient with my awkward and specific requests!

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CANOPY | Printing tests

I’m still testing colour and framing options, but really please with how these Plexiglass prints are looking. They come alive in bright sunshine. Now how do I make them rotate?

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Grane Mill, September 2025

Huge thank you to the fantastic team of volunteers working to keep this place alive.

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CANOPY | Animation test

This image is made of three photographs of tree canopies in Seathwaite, Cumbria. The images are overlaid and rotating slowly in different directions. The level of complexity rapidly means it’s essentially infinitely varying.

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Gunpowder Tea

This multimedia work was produced in collaboration with Imperial War Museum and Manchester Metropolitan University School of Digital Arts in response to the work of Chila Kumari Burman.

The piece features the poem Gunpowder Tea by Shadam Zeest Hashmi and is a collaborative work with other Masters students Jessica Curran; Samantha Butterworth, Harrison Brady and Soham Santosh Pradhan.

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Rossendale Art Trail | Spring 2025

This local exhibition featured several of the Lithics, Organics and Palings work shown in a location close to where many of the images were captured. The layers of the Lithics works included references to local history that were familiar to viewers.

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Gunpowder Tea | Imperial War Museum North | January 2025

A collaborative work with MA students from Manchester Metropolitan University and poet Shadab Zeest Hashmi