York photographer looks back on ten years of photographing the Minster and creating an archive of more than 60,000 images

Duncan Lomax has photographed the consecrations of more than 30 bishops, including the first female one, the installation of the current archbishop, the restoration of the organ and the Great East Window, royal visits by the king and queen and services being conducted during lockdown.

Freelance photographer Lomax almost got the job by accident. Having worked in print and marketing for a number of years he was used to commissioning photographers for commercial use.

"I was always a bit jealous of them,” he admits. “I’d always done photography on the side and so I’d go along with the photographers to the shoots if I could and pick up little bits from them. I got to a point where I was running a print management company, looking at spreadsheets all day and realised all the creativity had gone.”

Lomax knew a lot about photography already but decided to go back to college and did a degree in Commercial Photography. “I was doing a degree with a load of 18 year olds when I was in my forties. As part of the degree you had to go out and find clients. Most of the students did an easy option and went to a family member who had a small business. I actually went looking for clients.”

He heard about a stone auction taking place at York Minster of stones that have been worn and needed to be replaced. "I went along and there was no one taking photographs of it. I always have my camera with me and so I went up to someone from the Minster and asked if I was ok to take photographs and they said feel free. So I photographed it and it was all very atmospheric and raising funds for the Minster. I sent the photographs in and got a reply pretty much saying thanks but no thanks.”

However, a year later he was approached by the Minster who were planning another stone auction to raise funds and asked if they could use his pictures to advertise it. He agreed on the proviso they paid him so that he could list them as one of his clients. They agreed and also commissioned him to do that year’s stone auction. He was then approached to photograph the consecration of a new Bishop and what followed was a relationship that has spanned ten years and seen Lomax photograph the significant – and not always so significant – events in the Minster’s calendar.

He quickly learnt about consecrations and other services and the protocols of working in the Minster during religious services

“It is all about being respectful and not intrusive and understanding what is happening,” he says. "If it’s a service I don’t understand, I will always go out of my way to find out about it first. There’s no rule book but you learn quite quickly what is appropriate. For example when there is a procession you never walk in front of it you have to photograph from the side. Above all it is about being respectful and understanding what’s about to happen.

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“I am there to record what is happening, not be part of it. I am not there to get one shot that’s going to be on a front page but when I am photographing say, a consecration of a new bishop, I am taking photographs of people arriving and people putting their robes on – not news or for publication necessarily but it is all part of the Minster’s history.”

There are two very different sides to the job, he says. “There is the working church where I will document the services then there’s the world class tourist attraction that needs to put leaflets out and market its event, the two do overlap but quite often they are completely separate. I work for both sides.” His latest commission is to photograph every statue in the Minster for their archives.

He manages to do his other freelance work across the country around his commitments to the Minster who do use other photographers as well.

It is clear that for Lomax, who runs Ravage Productions, photographing the Minster over the years is far more than just another commission.

"The fact you go into the Minster and every time it is different the light is different or you look somewhere and see something you haven’t seen before – it is inspiring. I never get bored of shooting photographs in the Minster. “There’s a point in one of the services where bishops all gather round the new bishop and it’s like a scrum and the only way to photograph it is from above. I got permission to take a shot from the pulpit.”

After ten years Lomax said looking back he realised he had documented some really important moments not only in the history of the Minster’s but of the country.

"Sometimes the most important moments aren’t necessarily the best pictures but one that really stands out to me is the consecration of Libby Lane. She was the first female bishop. Some people were protesting about it so it was huge news. Since then I’ve probably photographed 20 women bishops but at that time the Minster was full to bursting, the press were outside five or six deep and it was filmed by the BBC live and went round the world. It was a hugely significant moment for the church and is probably the most significant service I’ve photographed.” He has photographed numerous Royal visits.

"In recent times there’s King Charles unveiling a statue of the Queen and doing the Royal Maundy money – I am often the only photographer there.”

Being the Minster’s official photographer gives Lomax exclusive access to events and areas not available to other photographers.

“One I really remember was up scaffolding to photograph the first piece of the restored Great East Window being replaced. They had put hundreds of clear protective panes on the outside to protect the stained glass and when the first piece of stained glass – which is a picture of God – was going back in at the top, I turned to the glazier and said ‘We are the last people to see that view for hundreds if not thousands of years.’ It was quite profound."

Another memorable occasion was the organ restoration. “Again that was a once in a lifetime thing as it won’t be done again for at least another hundred years.” The historic organ was completely stripped back and Lomax was the only photographer cataloging it. His photographs formed the basis of an exhibition at the Minster to help raise funds. "The Minster needed to raise £5million and so it was important for people to see the scale of the work involved,” he says. “People sit in the minster and see 50 pipes and think that’s it but there are actually 5,000 pipes.”

Covid was another area that Lomax documents in his work.

“It was a terrible time but services that would have had 2,500 people in had six people and I was one of them. There is one shot of the current Archbishop holding a bible up in an office and he’s on a Zoom call legally being made archbishop. That should have been all pomp and circumstance with thousands of people watching. That is a piece of history.”

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