Kielder: A photographic exhibition by Dr Helen McGhie

Kielder is a new photographic exhibition by Dr Helen McGhie, Senior Lecturer in Photography at the School of Digital Arts (SODA). The exhibition explores the intersection of light, technology and the night sky, drawing on six years of arts-based research conducted in partnership with Kielder Observatory Astronomical Society (2017–2023).

Focusing on Northumberland International Dark Sky Park, McGhie’s work captures encounters with place shaped by conversations with astronomers, trustees, volunteers and visitors. Through sustained engagement, she developed what she describes as “dark-sky situated knowledges” and a personal relationship with Northern England’s night skies.

At Kielder Observatory, enthusiasts peer through telescopes and produce long-exposure astrophotography that reveals the faintest traces of ancient starlight. While such images often evoke what scholar Elizabeth A. Kessler terms the “astronomical sublime,” McGhie’s photographs shift attention toward the lived experience of dark-sky observation: navigating single-track forest roads, adjusting to disorientating darkness, encountering wildlife, braving cold night air and mist rising from Kielder Water. By foregrounding these conditions, the exhibition reconsiders how dark skies are represented and understood.

The exhibition includes Wanderers (2017–2022), four portraits capturing the immersive anticipation of night-time observation, and Anatomy of a Northern Astronomer (2019), a museum-style installation commissioned by the North East Photography Network that visualises the tools, motivations and inspirations of Observatory volunteers. The seven-minute film Observatory (2020–21) traces the transition from day to night, accompanied by a soundtrack created from sonified image data. The large photographic banner Approach (2020), originally installed in Kielder Forest, recreates the Observatory’s red-hued glow, referencing the process of “dark adaptation” as eyes adjust to night vision.

In response to the exhibition, Manchester Poetry Library has curated poetry on the theme of darkness throughout its stacks. From science fiction to place-writing, these selections echo the original forest installation of McGhie’s banners and playfully respond to statements from Observatory volunteers, extending the dialogue between science, imagination and environment.

Previously shown at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Kielder Observatory and in outdoor installations in Dalby and Kielder Forests, Kielder now invites audiences to consider protected darkness not as absence, but as a medium of discovery—communicating scientific experience, telling stories and speculating on other worlds while encouraging a renewed attentiveness to the night.