Andrew Pounder | Exploring England through fine art photography.
- Isobel Arden
- Aug 9
- 8 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
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Meet Andrew Pounder.
In this interview, Mark created Andrew Pounder's fantasy cultural year from the answers to some easy questions to which there were no wrong answers.
Mark had a magic wand and a time machine at his disposal, so expect some surprises, laughs, anecdotes and conversational detours.
Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Andrew is a fine art photographer whose work ranges across landscape, urban, street, architectural, monochrome, HDR and still-life photography. His subject matter is often closer to home than the traditional idea of a photographic adventure might suggest: coastlines, industrial landscapes, city streets, buildings, changing neighbourhoods and ordinary places that can be surprisingly easy to walk past without really looking at them.
That is partly the point.
Andrew's photography has developed around an interest in the North East England as a place that is constantly changing. Industrial heritage sits alongside new technology, historic buildings sit alongside modern developments, and familiar streets can look very different after a few years.
His own background gives him an unusual position from which to photograph that change. He grew up in Darlington, later worked in London and Cambridge, and eventually returned to the North East, giving him both the perspective of someone who knows the region and the slightly detached eye of someone who has spent considerable time away from it.
Photography was originally something Andrew pursued alongside his professional career. Over the years, however, it became considerably more than a hobby.
The change in direction also came from a desire to get out of the house, keep active and develop something creatively. What began as photography gradually developed into a serious fine art practice, with Andrew building a substantial catalogue of images taken across the region.
Rather than trying to make every photograph look as though it belongs to the same Instagram grid, Andrew deliberately resists the idea that an artist needs one instantly recognisable visual formula. His artist statement describes this as "The Intentional Unbound": a deliberate refusal to be restricted to one genre, medium or aesthetic approach. The subject, light, atmosphere and story determine how an image should be made rather than the other way around.
That makes his portfolio an eclectic place. A monochrome architectural image can sit alongside a coastal landscape, an urban scene, a still life or an HDR photograph. The common thread is not necessarily colour, processing or composition. It is curiosity and increasingly, it is place.
One of Andrew's most significant projects is Two Tone Toon, his monochrome photographic portrait of Newcastle upon Tyne. The project developed into a published photography book in 2024 and was subsequently expanded into a five-volume ebook series. The book looks at Newcastle through a deliberately restrained black-and-white lens, turning familiar parts of the city into something closer to a visual document of place and time.
The title itself gives away something about Andrew's approach. There is affection for the city, but not necessarily the polished tourist-board version of it. His photography is interested in the texture of places: architecture, streets, industrial remnants, reflections, weather, light and the bits of a city that acquire meaning because people have lived around them.
That idea continues in Shades of Darlington, a project centred on the town where Andrew grew up. The project is particularly interested in places and memories that are disappearing — closed nightclubs, changing streets, former industry and pieces of the built environment that once seemed permanent but are gradually becoming part of local history.
It is photography as a form of record keeping, but without becoming a history textbook.
Andrew is essentially asking a fairly simple question: what will this place look like when the things we take for granted have gone?
That brings us to the other side of Andrew's work: Wall Space North.
Wall Space North is Andrew's Art-as-a-Service concept for businesses, serviced offices, co-working spaces and boutique hotels across North East England. Instead of companies buying generic artwork and leaving it on a wall for the next decade, Wall Space North provides curated fine art photography on a subscription basis, with artwork rotated over time. Clients can also purchase selected pieces outright.
The idea is straightforward: if a company has a wall, why should it have to look like every other office wall?
Andrew's answer is to fill it with photographs of the place the business actually operates in.
The Wall Space North catalogue is exclusively made up of Andrew's photography, covering locations across the North East including Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland, Darlington and Northumberland. The service also offers onsite curation, framing, delivery, annual rotation and bespoke photography commissions.
It is an interesting crossover between Andrew's artistic and commercial interests. The photographer gets his work into spaces where people actually spend time, while businesses get artwork with a genuine local connection rather than something chosen from an enormous catalogue of anonymous stock imagery.
Andrew also produces limited-edition fine art prints. His current catalogue includes signed and numbered editions, with selected collections offered in strictly limited quantities.
Ultimately, Andrew's work aims to document communities and locations that do not always receive the same attention as the region's most obvious landmarks. The ambition is not simply to photograph beautiful scenery. It is to create a visual record of places, landscapes and communities that might otherwise become overlooked.
Andrew Pounder's Fantasy Cultural Year ... with a magic wand and a time machine to hand.
Every Arts and Culture Network member is invited to embark on a Fantasy Cultural Year—an imaginary twelve-month journey designed around their passions, curiosity and imagination.
Andrew begins, appropriately, in Newcastle. It is six o'clock on a summer evening and Andrew Pounder is sitting in a pop-up café with a view of the Tyne Bridge. The drink on the table is a cappuccino.
The Tyne Bridge is Andrew's favourite building or structure in Great Britain and Ireland. He remembers Tower Bridge from his London days, when he worked nearby and regularly crossed it on foot, camera in hand. But after returning to Newcastle around two decades ago, the Tyne Bridge became the obvious symbol of home.
On the table beside Andrew is a signed copy of Your Man by Simon Woodroffe, with an inscription relating to Wall Space North. It is there partly for inspiration, because this fantasy year is about turning Wall Space North into something considerably larger.
The soundtrack is unlikely to be anything currently troubling the charts. Andrew's headphones are playing either Mississippi John Hurt, something from the blues and ragtime tradition, The Kinks, The Beatles or The Animals. If a recent pop hit suddenly appears, it is probably best not to tell him.
Then comes the news.
A wealthy British family foundation has been watching what Andrew has been building with Wall Space North. In this fantasy version of events, the concept has become a huge success. Government buildings, major hotels and businesses are subscribing. Some rotate their artwork. Others eventually buy it. The foundation wants to take the idea across Great Britain and Ireland and they are going to fund it.
There is only one question.
Where next?
London would be the obvious answer, but Andrew isn't interested in taking the obvious answer when there are plenty of photographs already competing for attention there.
Instead, he chooses Ireland, Dublin, flying from Newcastle first class.
There is a television crew following him. There is a book deal. There is a coffee-table photography book in the pipeline. There is a TED Talk somewhere on the horizon. There is even a university lecture tour.
The journey continues to Cork. A group of young artists and photographers are waiting for him. They take him to a dance performance before dinner.
The choice of performance is not particularly difficult.
Chicago.
Andrew isn't especially interested in dancing, but the jazz, blues and big-band influence makes it a much more appealing proposition. Afterwards comes dinner, and there is no elaborate culinary experiment required. Steak and vegetables.
From Cork, the fantasy tour heads back towards Britain. Wales is next, becoming another opportunity to fill those photographic folders.
The destination is Aberystwyth.
There is a sporting event taking place, and Andrew gets to choose what he watches.
Cricket. It is Andrew's favourite sport, followed by international rugby, with football also making the list.
From Wales, the cultural road trip heads to Cornwall, Penzance. Andrew wants to photograph the Cornish coastline, the Lizard Peninsula and, if the logistics can be persuaded to behave themselves, the Isles of Scilly.
The tour stops in St Ives. Here, however, the gallery experience is not quite conventional.
Andrew puts on a virtual reality headset and steps inside the work of another artist.
The choice is Salvador Dalí.
This is perhaps the least surprising decision of the entire fantasy year.
Andrew has long admired Dalí and once had large prints of his work throughout his home. Unfortunately, domestic diplomacy eventually intervened and the prints were moved into storage.
Then comes the concert he wishes he had seen. The Who at Leeds. The legendary performance that became the Live at Leeds album.
The fantasy year then turns towards cinema. If Andrew is choosing a film, there is a good chance Stanley Kubrick is involved. 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dr Strangelove are films he can watch repeatedly. He chooses Troll Hunter.
Eventually, the journey reaches London and there is one final invitation. Lunch. Andrew can invite anyone he wants. His choice is Buddy Holly because they inspired Andrew to pick up a guitar at 18. His parents had not allowed instruments in the house before then, but by 18 Andrew was paying his way and could make his own decisions.
And perhaps that is where the fantasy cultural year comes back to reality.
Because underneath the imaginary television crews, first-class flights, book deals and international expansion, Andrew Pounder's actual story is much less about becoming famous and much more about continuing to make things.
Take the photograph.
Make the book.
Build the catalogue.
Try the exhibition.
Create Wall Space North.
Learn something new.
Find another place worth photographing.
Then do it again.
The final image of the year is therefore not Andrew standing on a stage accepting an award. It is Andrew back in Newcastle, probably with a camera. The Tyne Bridge is still there and another photograph to take.
Andrew's contact details.
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Mark Walmsley FRSA FCIM AGSM
Chief Culture Vulture
Arts & Culture Network
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