YORK photographer Simon Palmour puts the undervalued Yorkshire Wolds in the frame in his Pocklington Arts Centre exhibition.

Palmour has been a photographer for more than 35 years, with his work having been published and exhibited across the country, not least at the Royal Geographical Society.

Over the past 15 years, he has taken his photography in a more abstract and monochrome direction, focusing more on textures, buildings and landscapes, including for the 2017 Ambiguity Exhibition at Lumen in London.

Now Palmour has unveiled his latest photographs: a series of black and white images of the high Yorkshire Wolds that will be collected in his book The High Wolds, set for publication later this year.

"I live in York, knee-deep in rich history, beautiful buildings and attentive tourists. To the west are the Yorkshire Dales, stately limestone landscapes, coaches and caves," says Palmour.

“To the south west lies the millstone grit of the Pennine moors, where Bronte and Hindley links lurk amid the grim landscape with industrial heritage in every dyke. To the north are the North York Moors, an uplifting heather-clad plateau that comes to the sea at Whitby, Robin Hood's Bay and Scarborough.

“A couple of National Parks; three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty; plenty of literary connections; several steam railways; long distance trails and a hoard of reasons to attract tourists, walkers and cyclists. And then there are the Wolds..."

...Over the past few years, Palmour has fallen in love with what he calls the "hidden treasure" of the Yorkshire Wolds. "Not a national park, not an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, barely known in Yorkshire, let alone the country as a whole," he says. "If this area was 50 miles from London, it would be renowned and lauded, but it’s not and it isn’t, and for that I am thankful.

"Over the past several years, I have delved deeper and deeper into the High Wolds. This exhibition shows you what I found. I show the images that catch the essence of what it is that I love about the area. I concentrate on the High Wolds, home to the highest ground and the deepest valleys," he says.

Palmour's latest collection and forthcoming book have been a labour of love. "It's not easy to photograph the Wolds. Visit the Lake District or the Alps and it is obvious what to focus on: the crags, the lakes the rivers, the forests. The delights of the Wolds are harder to see, to describe and to photograph. Looking at available books of photographs of the area, and they are few, I was struck by how they failed to capture what was there.

"A beautiful slack could end up looking like a rather dull field. So the challenge was clear; attempt to use photographs to capture what it is that makes the Wolds so special."

The results are on show in The High Wolds exhibition until October 6. To discover more about Simon Palmour and his work, visit palmour.eu.

Charles Hutchinson