A NORTH-EAST photographer has used unconventional techniques to capture unique images of lifesavers in North Yorkshire.

RNLI volunteers from Staithes and Runswick, Whitby, Scarborough and Filey lifeboat stations have been immortalised on glass as part of an ambitious venture.

The Lifeboat Station Project is a labour of love for Jack Lowe, who lives in Newcastle.

He is visiting all 238 RNLI lifeboat stations in the UK and Republic of Ireland in a five-year project to photograph the view, the crew and coxswain from each of them.

Mr Lowe is using the 'Wet Plate Collodion' technique, a Victorian process that allows him to record the images on glass.

The photographer, grandson of Dad’s Army actor Arthur Lowe, travels in ‘Neena’ – his decommissioned NHS ambulance purchased on eBay and converted into a mobile darkroom.

The project, which began in January 2015, will be the first complete photographic record of every single lifeboat station on the RNLI network.

Last week's trip to North Yorkshire means he has now visited more than 80 stations. He looks set to reach the half-way point in 2018

Mr Lowe said: "My dad is an experienced seafarer and introduced me to the wonders of lifeboats – these incredible, powerful pieces of kit designed for heroic, lifesaving missions on stormy seas.

“From an early age, I loved photography and lifeboats. Now I’m following my heart and uniting the two passions.

"I’m using a photographic technique developed in the 1850s, around the time that the RNLI was incorporated under Royal Charter. The photographs are made directly onto glass plates known as ‘ambrotypes’.”

When he visits a lifeboat station, Mr Lowe makes the portraits using a camera made in 1905, and then develops the images in his mobile darkroom.

The volunteer lifeboat crew members are able to step into the ambulance and watch as their portraits appear on the glass plates – an experience he says they find fascinating, and sometimes very moving.

He added: “There’s a small global community of people interested in using these old techniques.

"Everyone works in their own way – and you’re always learning as you go along. The chemicals are the original formulae from the 1800s.

"I have a box made for each station that holds ten sheets of 12x10 inch glass. Then when I get them back to Newcastle I scan them, varnish them and then place them into storage.”

Follow Mr Lowe’s RNLI photographic mission online at lifeboatstationproject.com.