In a nod to his craft’s Victorian heritage, one Newcastle-based photographer is visiting every lifeboat station with his 110-year-old camera and glass plate technology.

Using a former NHS ambulance as a mobile darkroom, Jack Lowe, grandson of Dad’s Army actor Arthur Lowe, will take between 3 and 5 years to complete his labour of love – an epic tour of all 237 RNLI lifeboat stations in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

Jack has been a lifelong supporter of the RNLI, joining Storm Force at the age of 8 and raising over £6,000 for the charity in three Great North Runs. His images are captured on plates of glass using an early Victorian process known as wet plate collodion.

He says: ‘My early childhood was spent on a schooner on the Thames. Dad was in the Merchant Navy and I have always loved lifeboats – these wonderful, powerful pieces of kit designed for heroic missions on stormy seas. I wanted to be either a photographer or a lifeboat crew member when I grew up, now I’m uniting the two dreams.’

To follow Jack’s project online, visit:
Website: lifeboatstationproject.com
Twitter: Twitter.com/ProjectLifeboat
Instagram: instagram.com/lordlowe