Dorset based photographer Chris Hilton will be showcasing an exploration of pictures taken on recent trips abroad, entitled The Art of Travel, at Lyme Regis Museum’s Rotunda Gallery from 12 November until 2 February 2025.

Chris’s approach to the art of travel, as visitors will quickly appreciate, depends on his focus on the realities of life encountered, rather than travel brochure promises. 

As Chris puts it, “So much of the modern travel experience revolves around expectation (white sand and palm trees, the rural idyll, cultural highlights or fine dining) that whilst our time and imagination is given over to dreaming, the realities of the travel itself are given little or no consideration.

“The art of travel is to find somewhere to get that zip fixed, or to get a watch battery, to go to the doctor, or to get a haircut.  In other words, it exists in the cracks where our imagination failed to go.  We need to let reality wash over us in all its messy, uncomfortable glory without the hindrance of expectation.  It is then that I find my eyes are truly open.  For me, travel is about being fully immersed in that 1/125th of a second, alive to a shadow, a colour, a glimpse, and if that is the case, then I find myself travelling as much in my home town as I do in pastures new because with the right eyes, it’s always new!”