Dave Gillespie - Now Frying
Thu 20 Nov
|Swan Hill Studios
Now Frying is a photographic study by Dave E. Gillespie, capturing Britain’s fish and chip shops and Chinese takeaways glowing after dark. What began in 2020 as a wider project on independent shopkeepers evolved into a focused look at these fading high-street icons.
Time & Location
20 Nov 2025, 17:00 – 20:00
Swan Hill Studios, 17A Swan Hill, Shrewsbury SY1 1NL, UK
About the event
Dave E. Gillespie began taking photographs in 2005, aged 18, after realising he couldn’t draw, paint, sing, or play an instrument. His dad handed him an old SLR, and he joined a darkroom night class at Telford Technical College. Hoping to nurture his creativity, he left for Leeds to study biological sciences, though the lab proved a poor muse. Inspiration instead came from photographers such as Martin Parr, Bruce Gilden, Tony Ray-Jones, and Diane Arbus.
The idea for Now Frying grew from Dave’s fascination with shops, rooted in stories from his Grandpa’s Ironbridge ironmongers, Beddoes & Son (1882–1983). Chief lesson: never inherit the family business, especially if the council decides to stick a roundabout outside your front door.
In 2020, Dave began photographing Britain’s independent shopkeepers under the working title Nation of Shopkeepers. The idea evolved into Now Frying, a nocturnal study of the country’s fish and chip shops and…
