The Snapshot Museum is solely dedicated to The Snapshot; the photography of everyday life. It houses an extensive archive of People's Photography from the last 100 years. The collection includes black and white and colour photographs, slides, negatives, Polaroids, Photobooth, albums, vintage camera equipment, home movies and other photographic ephemera.

We can all relate to snapshots. Sometimes stored in a shoe box under the bed, or a bag in the loft, they are the pictures we've all taken or been the subject of at some time in our lives.

Families often inherit photographs when a relative dies and are left with pictures of strangers and second-hand nostalgia. Sadly, many family photographs end up in landfill.

Snapshots are candid and honest; sometimes bad, sometimes stunning. They have a charming lack of guile and intention. Within the collection there are photographs of outstanding technical and conceptual ability that could rival many acclaimed photographers.

They celebrate the memories, moments, and events that people recorded. This is a visual history of how we lived and what we chose to remember. Collectively these photographs form a fascinating and important document of ordinary people's lives. They are nobody and everybody; familiar strangers. Within the pictures we look for ourselves and our own histories.

In recent years the rise of digital photography has resulted in the huge decline and near demise of film photography. No longer do we have the anticipation of waiting for our films to be processed, then getting them back days later with a good few 'happy accidents' in the packet. No more blur or heads cuts off in portraits, in an instant we can now simply 'delete'. The snapshot has changed forever.

The museum celebrates the vast amount of images taken by ordinary people over the last century. Harnessing all the anticipation and consideration that went into picture taking, and celebrating the delights and unexpected truths about human experience snapshots contain.

The Snapshot Museum is currently working towards opening a site in the seaside town of Morecambe on the Northwest coast of England. This will play host to a series of themed exhibitions, workshops, film screenings, and talks and will act as a resource for all things Snapshot.

The Snapshot Museum at The Winter Gardens, MorecambeThe Museum also has a mini gallery/display case in a disused ticket booth within the decaying splendor of The Morecambe Winter Gardens.

Now showing: Miss Morris - a life in pictures
Snapshots from a 94 year old prolific shutterbug.

The Museum also has a regular Snapshot feature in The Lancaster Guardian, which has featured many interesting local snapshot finds; from beauty queens and caravans, twins and general tomfoolery through to photographs of disability in 1940's England.