The Marvellous Everyday

Penlee House Gallery & Museum boasts an extensive collection of photographs, ranging from pictures dating to the dawn of photography through to the 20^th century, including John Branwell, Gibson & Co, the Richards Brothers, Robert Preston and Harry Penhaul.

Opening on 22 January, the exhibition ‘The Marvellous Everyday’ draws on this collection to look at some of the quirkier images taken by West Cornwall’s photographers.  Rather than the picturesque views depicted on postcards, the exhibition includes informal snapshots, press photos and unusual, bizarrely composed images to offer an uncommon overview of our local area.  

A picture may paint a thousand words, but the images in this exhibition raise more questions than answers: why, for example, did a Victorian photographer take a picture of Penzance promenade with a boom lying idle on the pavement?   Who is the strange-looking man in a dressing gown, hood up, standing in a meditative pose in a conservatory?

Some of the photographs show intriguing events, from shorts-wearing young men of ‘Penzance Health and Strength Club’ doing bizarre gymnastic poses, to a fishing boat seemingly wedged in a house wall, or people ‘walking on water’ in Newlyn harbour.  While the formality of Victorian poses and the evident novelty of picture-taking lends a quirkiness to the early photographs, some of the later press images, long 

since separated from their captions, raise questions all of their own about who the people are and what on earth they are doing: visitors may well be able to help answer these queries, but meanwhile the mystery adds to the entertainment.  

Whether you’re interested in photography, intrigued to see if you or your relatives are depicted, or just looking for something to raise a smile, don’t miss this sideways look at everyday life, which is on show at Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance, until 26 March.The exhibition has been curated by Jeremy Rice, Technical Officer, with assistance from the Penlee House photographic research group, led by John Wallis.