Notice: Stained Glass In Focus

Published on: 27 Jan, 2019
Updated on: 27 Jan, 2019

Photographs of stained glass taken by Guildford photographer Michael Sleigh are currently being exhibited at Guildford Cathedral.

Over 50 framed prints are on display, showing a range of images as details, captured from larger stained glass windows with the intention of showing what can often be overlooked when viewing windows in churches.

The exhibition runs until Sunday, February 24.

Mike Sleigh explains “Quite often if someone stops to look at a window there is too much to take in with one look. That is if the visitor can even get to see the window in the first place – locked churches, windows high up in the church, or obscured by fitments such as organs.

“I have found that many church guidebooks (if there is one) will mention all monuments and fittings in a church but completely fail to make any mention of the stained glass, which I find disappointing”.

In his stained glass project, Mike tries to photograph all accessible windows in a church as a record and then exhibit it, or put online a selection of the best examples. In the long term, the plan is to work on the hundreds of photos already taken and load them to the internet as an educational resource.

“The exhibition at the cathedral has been a great opportunity for me to display some of the images and builds on my previous exhibitions at the Guildford Institute, the Allen Gallery in Alton and at St Marys Church in Guildford.”

Other locations will be offered the opportunity to display a selection of the photographs once the exhibition at Guildford Cathedral ends.

Mike Sleigh will give a talk about stained glass in local churches at the Allen Gallery at 7.30pm on Thursday, April 25 www.hampshireculture.org.uk/allen-gallery and will also deliver a short course at the Guildford Institute in Ward Street on ‘Looking at Stained Glass’ from 1pm to 4pm on Thursday, June 20, which will include a visit to look at the windows in St Mary’s Church in Quarry Street www.guildford-institute.org.uk. (Details of both events will be published nearer the time.)