A Larder exhibition in honour of Preston photographer Tony Worrall opens today

Later today, an exhibition in honour of the late Preston photographer, Tony Worrall, is opening at The Larder in Preston city centre.

A prolific photographer, Tony was a proud Prestonion who built up nearly 80,000 pictures on the photosharing website, Flickr, before sadly passing away on June 10 this year, aged 61, at his home in Ashton-on-Ribble.

Opening at 1.00pm today, ‘A tribute to Tony Worrall’ will run until Sunday January 23, and displays canvases and framed prints of some of Tony’s best-loved Preston scenes, which have been picked from his large collection by his sister, Tina Kenny.

Larder volunteer, Victoria Dyer, who commissions, installs and promotes exhibitions for Art at the Larder, said: "I've been aware of Tony as a photographer in Preston for a good 10 years myself, and when I started working at the Larder, I finally got to meet him, and he was very supportive of the Larder when it opened.

"Because he was such a big figure, so prolific, we wanted to be able to honour him, and so we got together with Ed Walker from Blog Preston, where Tony had worked [he was a co-editor and contributor], and it was decided between the family, Ed and ourselves, that the Larder was a suitable city centre venue to be able to do that.

"I'd love people to come and see his work, because the canvases are so much bigger, and a much better presentation of his photographic talent, than seeing a small image printed in a newspaper or attached to an online article, and it's a range of images that were chosen by Tony's sister, Tina, as her favourites from from his archive, so we're very happy at the Larder to be able to showcase that and remember his work.

"We've also got comment slips because we'd love people to come in, browse the browse the images, and then complete the slips to tell us which is their favourite and why, also, if people have any memories of Tony then we'd like them to contribute that, because we want to put it together into a little scrapbook for Tina."

Tony's sister will be attending the exhibition's opening today to represent the family, as will the Mayor of Preston, councillor Javed Iqbal, who will be officially opening the exhibition.

Also attending today is the sculptor who created the PNE Tom Finney statue "The Splash", Peter Hodgkinson, who has offered to sign Tony's photograph of his statue, which will be given away in a prize draw.

Tony's work on display during the exhibition is also for sale to members of the public, with some of the proceeds going towards funding the Larder's Kids in the Kitchen programme, which provides food vouchers, recipes and videos during the school holidays to Preston families whose children receive free school meals.

In a biography of her brother's life, written for the exhibition, Tina said: "Tony was hugely talented and passionate about the place he lived. He leaves a huge legacy within the proud city he called home, both in pictures and historical facts of his one love – Preston.

"He loved how posting an image could reach around the world with an instant response – many of his followers putting Preston on their list of destinations simply due to the beauty portrayed by Tony’s lens.

"He has left an incredible gallery of fantastic images. I hope the ones chosen will inspire many more photographers to get out and snap away, to love the place they live, to document and record it in detail."

During Tony's lifetime, he collected a colossal amount of photographs which depicted Preston at its best, including images of Miller Arcade, Haslam Park, the Docks, and Preston Bus Station.

Although Tony declined the Larder's offer of an exhibition in 2019, he last year participated in their 'Preston on a Postcard' exhibition, which was open for the people to submit up to 10 postcard sized images of Preston.

Tony's Flickr photo album has now gained over 33 million views since 2007, and the Flickr group he founded has recently been taken over by Preston photographer Gary Bond, which you can visit here.

For more information on The Larder, visit its website.