This year, Arts organisation Signal Film and Media commissioned image-maker Nicholas J.R. White to photograph the English port town of Barrow-in-Furness, creating a contemporary response to the iconic Sankey Photography Archive – a unique collection of imagery that captures the industrial and social heritage of Barrow-in-Furness and the surrounding areas. The result is The Binding Tide, a striking new series that offers a fresh perspective on the landscapes, communities, and waters that define this region, weaving together its working heritage and coastal identity with an eye to both its past and its evolving future.

This series comes at a time when the town’s social and political landscape is undergoing significant change, with Barrow recently being awarded ‘Royal’ status for its role in the UK’s nuclear submarine program. The Binding Tide offers a fresh perspective on the town’s evolving identity and its relationship to the surrounding environment.

Much of the work was made along the margins of Barrow, tracing the coast road from Ulverston to Roe Island, and extending north to South Walney and the fringes of Barrow Island. “I wasn’t looking to replicate photographs from the archive,” White explains, “rather craft a contemporary response to conversations started by the Sankey’s. Excessive planning extinguishes serendipity and so I decided instead to be led by curiosity, allowing for chance encounters of both people and place.”

This spontaneous approach led White to photograph subjects not previously captured in the Sankey Archive, such as off-grid settlements by the Duddon Estuary and the Furness Model Boating Club, which has been in existence since 1895. White was also drawn to subjects that resonated with the themes explored by the Sankey photographers, such as a portrait of Dayle riding her horse, Lucy, at low tide — a subtle reference to the workhorses depicted in the industrial past of the shipyards and factories.

“As a new wave of intense industry crashes into Barrow, I hope that The Binding Tide contributes to an alternative view of the town, its people, and the landscapes that surround it” White concludes.

The Binding Tide is part of a heritage project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Sankey: Lives Through the Lens, and will be exhibited in an outdoor exhibition at Barrow Town Hall Courtyard throughout the summer from 9th July, 2025. The work will also be shared on Signal Film and Media’s website. Further details about White’s work and about the full heritage project commissioned by Signal Film and Media can be found here.