New Guildford Photo Exhibition Covers Decades of Events – Big and Small

Published on: 23 Sep, 2026
Updated on: 23 Sep, 2026

The year is 1968. Vanessa Redgrave and Tariq Ali lead the anti-Vietnam war protest to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London. John Walmsley’s picture hangs in the National Portrait Gallery

By Jason Blackwood

Award-winning Guildford photographer John Walmsley has a new exhibition running at the Guildford Institute. The exhibition spans years of his documentary work, tracing John’s artistic journey from his formative years at Guildford School of Art in the 1960’s right up to recent town events. John often focuses on ordinary people living their lives.

There are 15 full framed photographs, plus cards, books and zines in the exhibition. Included among them are two photos of note from a Guildford perspective: a black and white picture of the 1968 floods showing people paddling canoes along the High Street. Contrasting that is an aerial colour shot of Guildford High Street from 2015, showing the Christmas lights, the last time we had coloured lights.

The exhibition also has one of his best-known photographs, showing Vanessa Redgrave and Tariq Ali at the Vietnam War protests in 1968. That picture hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

John also has work in the Tate Britain Library, the National Art Library at the V&A, the V&A Museum of Childhood, Museum of Liverpool and la Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. He is the author or co-author of 14 books and has self-published 11 booklets (zines). His work is in over 1,000 books worldwide.

In 2025 John was awarded second prize in the World Street Photo Awards (decisive moment section). And he was a finalist in the Head On Festival in Sydney. In 1990 John was sent by the British Government to cover reconstruction after the Armenian earthquake.

The exhibition is free and runs until Saturday, October 24, in the Café at the Institute on Ward Street. The Institute is normally closed on Sundays but will be open on the 4th. John will be there on Saturday, October 3, from 3pm if you’d like to come along and chat or have him sign books and zines.

John Walmsley took this evocative picture of the Guildford floods in September 1968. A young boy in Wellington boots watches canoeists at the bottom of Guildford High Street. Shops such as the John Collier tailors lie under six feet of water.