Meet the photographer with unique exhibition currently on display at iconic 78 Derngate in Northampton

Barry Roberts, who has been a photographer since 1965 and will celebrate his 80th birthday this year, has displayed a collection of his personal photographs at the heart of the Cultural Quarter. This will remain until at least the end of March.

“As a consequence of being an industrial and advertising-based photographer all of my career, this work is very different to what I’ve been producing professionally,” Barry told the Chronicle & Echo.

“It’s never been seen before and it’s a good time to get it out there. This is one of the first shows I’ve had in Northampton in recent years and I thought it would be a nice place to do it. The work is all based on personal experience and things that have excited me at the time or are intrinsically interesting in a visual sense.”

The display includes a variety of photographs taken during Barry’s two-month trip to the south of China at the start of 2025, which is a small taster of a much larger show he hopes to place elsewhere in the near future.

“I recently had a show in Abington Park Museum about Northampton,” said Barry. “It’s very similar to these Chinese street scenes but with Northampton buildings. It was very interesting.

“My next show will be coming at Delapré Abbey and it may well be quite different. Rather than individual prints, there will be panoramas taken on a special panoramic camera. They are high quality images of around a metre long of special places in the UK.

“I’ve got an enormous archive over the 60 plus years I’ve been shooting and it saddens me that if I don’t do something positively about it, they may never be seen. I’ve got a hell of a lot more to get out there.”

There is a story behind each of Barry’s photos and those grouped together in each collection are all connected through an idea.

“I’ve always been interested in bizarre characters,” said Barry. “When you spend a whole lifetime doing it, you get to the point where you’re prepared to go anywhere and do anything to get the picture. That’s what it’s all about.”

Barry lives in Kislingbury and was born in Northampton. He lived in the town until the age of eight, when his parents’ business took the family to London until he was 14. Barry has lived in a variety of locations, mostly Oxford, but considers Northampton to be his hometown.

“Some of these pictures are almost historical documents now,” said Barry. “I’ve got pictures dating back to as early as 1964. I’m not taking so many pictures these days as I don’t have the energy to do it.

“These [pictures from China] were all shot on an iPhone camera. The whole series is shot from this phone. I’m more interested now in the technology of the new era. All the rest of my pictures were taken on classic film-based cameras. Being able to slip into new technology and use an image to make an impact is quite interesting for me.”