Over three decades John Wiltshire built up an unseen archive of thousands of photographs

A prolific amateur photographer who amassed thousands of unseen images of steam locomotives taken across three decades is to receive his first major exhibition this week.

The exhibition, called 212 Degrees Fahrenheit, will feature the stunning steam train photography of John Wiltshire.

John, from Cardiff, died in 2016, but his pictorial history of the age of steam in Wales will now live on for generations.

The exhibition, at Ffotogallery in Penarth, is a showcase of John’s steam portfolio from 1948 until the end of industrial steam in the UK in the late 1970s. His work shows how railways were a part of everyday life in the 1950s and 1960s, focusing on the people working daily with steam locomotives on British railways and industrial estates.

On his passing in 2016, John’s extensive photographic collection passed onto his son Andrew, a transport author who has published books on the subject of ships and buses, some including his father’s work. Andrew Wiltshire and work colleague at Cardiff University Peter Brabham have, over the last five years, worked together to collate and digitize the collection comprising of more than 4000 images.

Marc Arkless, Ffotogallery’s exhibitions manager said: We’re really pleased to be showing the first major exhibition of John Wiltshire’s work at Turner House, Penarth, as part of our 40th anniversary celebrations. John’s work as an amateur photographer as opposed to a trained artist transcends the act of documenting, with some images reminiscent of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Bernd and Hilla Becher. The exhibition is sure to appeal to a larger audience of both art photography lovers and steam enthusiasts.

212 Degrees Fahrenheit: Steam Railway Photography by John Wiltshire Preview: Thursday, September 6 at 6pm, Turner House, Plymouth Road, Penarth. The exhibition continues from September 7 - 21.