IT’S Huddersfield – but not quite as you know it.
Huddersfield Unplugged, by Paddock artist Ali White, is a blend of approximately 2,000 photos taken around the town last year.
The work takes the town’s better and lesser known landmarks, and compiles them into one scene.
Huddersfield Unplugged, the follow-up to last year’s Holmfirth Unplugged, aims to show Huddersfield as it is today without the nostalgia and promotional gloss.
Ali, who has worked with digital photography since 2000, said: “I tried to avoid representing Huddersfield as it often does when it promotes itself.
“Huddersfield doesn’t need to be plugged because it’s a fascinating place. It doesn’t have to be repeatedly represented by its past.
“I tried to include the right kind of balance that says Huddersfield to most people.”
And with 2,000 scenes to shoot and blend seamlessly on to one canvas, Huddersfield Unplugged wasn’t something Ali did overnight.
The work took six months and 7.5 gigabytes to complete.
Ali, 64, said: “It was incredibly time consuming and labour intensive.
“Adding the shadows was the hardest thing because they have to all be in the right direction, otherwise it doesn’t look right.
“It’s actually incredibly absorbing and I never got bored.”
Creating Huddersfield Unplugged was a step up from Holmfirth Unplugged, but White said he’d be happy to make a montage of a much bigger city.
He said: “Someone did suggest I do Edinburgh because of the way it’s laid out.
“I love doing local stuff but it would be good to do somewhere else.
“It would have to be a commission because it’s so time consuming.”
A giant reproduction of Huddersfield Unplugged will be on display at AC Gallery, Byram Street, from March 9 to 23.
Other White works at the exhibition include Pipedream, a collage of chimneys in northern Scotland, an image of the Jumeirah Mosque, in Dubai, and a collection of pictures of Jersey cows and John Smith’s Stadium.
