North East England

I am a firm supporter of the North East of England. See the story of my support here at www.NorthEastEngland.co.uk A Passion for the Landscape of North East England One of North East England's newest landscape photographers, Mike McFarlane, is to exhibit at Newcastle's Biscuit Factory later this year. Having grown up in the North East, Mike has spent most of his working life elsewhere in the UK. A career change from mechanical engineering and a move back to North East England, allowed him to concentrate on his passion for the landscapes, architecture and shapes of the region through photography. Instead of the daily grind of working in an office, Mike is now building up a thriving photography business from his home in County Durham. Mike's photography tries to capture the wonder and splendour of the countryside, towns and coast of the region. Working mainly in colour, he likes to pick out details in the landscape that many people miss, but by using wide angle lenses he shows that detail in its setting. Working mostly with digital equipment, but spending as little time at the computer as possible, he is often out before dawn (in March this means being up at 4am!) to scope out a location and settle down for the light to work its magic. The magical photographs that Mike produces are certainly going down well with some North East England's hottest art spots – he currently supplies work to the Art Cafe in Corbridge, is about to start working with Art Evolution in Gosforth and will be exhibiting his work at The Biscuit Factory between June and August this year. Mike will also be building on some of his past commercial work to supply landscape photography to businesses in the region. Over the longer term he hopes to be able to give something back into the community and will be trying to arrange workshops or community partnership schemes to promote photography and the arts to others through the Arts Council. And, keen to show off the beauty of North East England to others, he will be approaching major galleries outside the region to show his photography of the region to people across the UK. Mike was delighted to see the Passionate People. Passionate Places campaign come to life. “There is a sense of pride, of community in the North East, something I have not really found anywhere else and I think it is this that inspires such passion in me and others for the region. When I first heard about the Passionate campaign and the North East England brand I thought that it was a great idea and I wanted to be involved. I wanted to help promote the region that I love to ensure that the artistic, cultural and technological changes that are now happening bear fruit. I quickly put the North East England brand toolkit to use and included the logo on my marketing material, business stationary, CDs and website (www.mikemcfarlane.co.uk) including a link from my site to the North East England site.” To find out more about Mike's work, visit his website - www.mikemcfarlane.co.uk or call him on 07764 250 674.