Scarborough-based photographer and artist, Graham Rhodes, recently fulfilled a long held ambition to open a small gallery in an empty unit on the harbour's West Pier.

He said he had treated himself to the unit as a 60th birthday present because there was a lot of interest when he ran a stall at this year's Seafest event.

He said: "I got so many nice reactions and comments I decided to look for suitable premises."

The walls are covered with images of familiar views including those from Scarborough, Bridlington, Whitby, the rest of Yorkshire, London and mainland Europe, including Amsterdam.

Mr Rhodes chose the name – Aakshipper Images – for his gallery and website because it means barge in Dutch and he always wanted to live on a barge in Amsterdam.

He said: "I wanted the website to have a European feel, but I had never really seriously thought of opening a gallery."

Once he has taken the original digital photographs he uses a computer program to create the finished images which he hopes have a timeless quality.

He said: "Somebody said that a photograph captures a moment in time, but by manipulating the colours of the photo it becomes timeless – a moment in infinity. By creating that interest it makes us look at things twice. I would never be satisfied taking a photograph and printing it in full colour. I spend at least between two and eight hours getting it to look right." He began his career as a landscape painter and exhibited at the Leeds Northern Artists Exhibition, alongside David Hockney, in 1967.

Later he became a book cover designer, worked with audio visual presentations, before designing record sleeves during the late 1970s for artists such as the Police.

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