A PHOTOGRAPHER is running workshops in the Dales for young people to gain access to tuition in creative skills which she felt were not available when she was starting out.

Joanne Coates, from Spennithorne, near Leyburn, has launched the creative photography workshops at The Space in The Dales, Reeth, with the next one taking place on August 21 and 22.

She said: “As a young person growing up in North Yorkshire I didn’t have the chance to access the arts which is why it felt really important to set this in motion with The Space in the Dales.

“I went away to study at 16 and came back to Yorkshire a year after graduating from university in London and wanted to share my skills.

“I grew up in Helmsley and at the time I didn’t know that being a photographer was even a job – and any courses I did find I didn’t think were for me as they seemed to be aimed at older people.”

Miss Coates, who produces documentary-style photography and specialises in social issues in the Dales, such as the threat of school closures, said she discovered a love of holding workshops while she was a student.

She said: “I used to help run them while I was at university, and I realised I really enjoyed them.

“I wanted to hold something in the Dales to give young people here the opportunity to give it a try.

“Even if they are more in to art, illustration, editing or design, the course will include those aspects too as they will produce a magazine at the end of it.”

She said Melissa Miller and Hannah Hurley, who run The Space in The Dales, have been supportive of her plans.

She said: “They have been brilliant. They like to run courses which are not usually available in the Dales.”

The course costs £55 and runs from 10am to 4pm. To book call 07396-171655.