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Daily’s photo exhibition attracts 12,000 visitors

A pop-up exhibition featuring more than 300 images from the archives of a regional daily newspaper has attracted around 12,000 visitors.

The Hull Daily Mail took part in The People’s Gallery after the paper’s long-serving local government reporter Angus Young came up with the idea when giving a talk at the city’s Heritage Open Days event last year.

A total of 47 display boards were produced including giant aerial photographs of the city dating back to the 1920s which were stuck to the floor so visitors could get a bird’s eye view of Hull through the years.

The four-day exhibition was held  in an empty city centre shop unit as part of Hull Civic Society’s annual Heritage Open Days programme.

The exhibition featured more than 300 images from the paper's archives

“The Mail has a fantastic photographic archive which is only ever seen in our regular Flashback publications,” Angus told HTFP.

“I thought it was high time to stage a proper public exhibition featuring many images which have never been seen for many years.

“In a way, it was also a tribute to generations of Mail photographers who were responsible for the images we chose.  News photography is a genre all of its own and is often overlooked.

“The reaction for people over the weekend was tremendous with many asking for it to become a permanent exhibition. The response was so great that we are now looking at a number of future options.

“They include taking part or all of the exhibition on a tour of the city, leaving it where it is and opening for special events or loaning some of the display boards to care homes and health centres for use in memory clinics with dementia patients.”

The display boards were produced free of charge by Hull-based commercial design firm Inter Tech while the use of the shop unit was also donated by its owners.