Red Barn Gallery facts for kids
The Red Barn Gallery, also known as RBG Belfast, was a special place in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was a photography gallery that showed amazing pictures. What made it unique was that it was the first gallery in Belfast focused on photos taken with film cameras, not digital ones. It opened its doors in 2008.
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A Look Back: How the Gallery Started
The Red Barn Gallery used to be an old pub! A photographer named Frankie Quinn turned it into the gallery. He painted it white, but he kept some parts of the old pub. The pub itself was built where a real barn once stood, which is how the gallery got its name. After the pub closed in the early 1980s, the building was used for storage or was empty for a while before becoming the gallery.
What the Gallery Wanted to Do
The Red Barn Gallery was a not for profit place. This means it didn't try to make money for owners. Instead, it was all about helping people learn about and enjoy photography. The gallery's website said its main goal was to "inspire and educate." They did this through special photo shows, projects, and workshops. They wanted to encourage people to appreciate and improve social documentary photography. This type of photography shows real life and important events.
The gallery really believed in using traditional film cameras. They also thought photos should not be changed too much with computer software. Their main idea was that a photo should be captured well by the camera itself. It should not be heavily edited or altered on a computer.
Amazing Photo Shows at the Gallery
The Red Barn Gallery hosted many interesting exhibitions. Here are some of the notable ones:
802% above the Norm
This show in May 2009 featured photographs from Poland. The pictures were taken during a time when Poland was a socialist country. They were captured by two photographers, Henryk Makarewicz and Wiktor Pental.
Bombay St: Taken from the Ashes
This exhibition was put on by the Red Barn Gallery itself. It showed the effects of a sad event that happened on Bombay Street in 1969. The show displayed a collection of images that a photographer, Gerry Collins, had kept hidden for almost 40 years. This exhibition was very popular. More than 7,000 people came to see it.
Frankie Quinn: XXV
In early 2010, the gallery showed a special collection of photos by its director, Frankie Quinn. This exhibition looked back at many years of his work.
Stefania Gurdowa: Negatives must be stored
This exhibition was shown in May 2010. It featured old photographic plates that belonged to Stefania Gurdowa. These plates are like the original negatives used to print photos.
