The English Cathedral – Peter Marlow

In 2026, Salisbury Cathedral, UK, home to the 1215 Magna Carta, Britain’s tallest spire and the world’s oldest clock, hosted Peter Marlow: The English Cathedral, the next stage of an ambitious tour of works by the late Magnum photographer Peter Marlow. This free photographic exhibition, chronicling all 42 naves of England’s Anglican cathedrals, was on display from 27 February to 31 March 2026.

Organised by the Peter Marlow Foundation, the charity established to continue Peter’s legacy, the exhibition forms part of an ongoing project to display this ethereal collection of images at each of the 42 cathedrals he visited on his photographic pilgrimage across England. Salisbury Cathedral was the 27th of the 42 cathedrals to host the exhibition and the first venue of the 2026 touring programme, marking the 11th year of the exhibition’s journey around the country.

Peter Marlow: The English Cathedral invited visitors to embark on a visual journey through Peter Marlow’s lens, capturing the essence of each cathedral in natural light with all modern artificial lighting turned off. Peter’s photographic portrait of Salisbury Cathedral evocatively transported viewers back to the site’s medieval roots, inviting contemplation of its dramatic Gothic interior.

About Peter Marlow

Peter Marlow (b. UK, 1952 – 2016) was commissioned in 2008 by Royal Mail on the 300th year anniversary of the completion of St Paul’s Cathedral to photograph six Anglican Cathedrals that were issued as commemorative stamps. So taken was he by these initial magnificent interiors that he set out to photograph all 42, guided over the next three years by a copy of English Cathedrals (1989) by Edwin Smith and Olive Cook and a pack of Anglican Cathedrals of England Top Trumps Cards.

“What I thought was going to be incredibly simple became intricate, complicated, and utterly absorbing. The journey was memorable and wonderfully hypnotic, a kind of reflective pilgrimage. My cathedral days involved hours of driving and thinking, with my reference Polaroids drying in the sun on the dashboard. England passed by.” Peter Marlow, The English Cathedral.

42 Photographic ‘Portraits’

The images appear deceptively simple in their composition and technical set-up. It was after much experimentation that Peter developed the perfect strategy to document these huge interior spaces and to highlight the many varied architectural nuances between the buildings. Shooting on large format film using only natural light, he set up in the same position at nearly all of the cathedrals – looking east towards the nave and altar as the dawn light streamed through the main window. By ensuring all artificial lighting was turned off, a rarity in many of these buildings whose lights remain on constantly, he captured the cathedrals emerging from the darkness as if suspended in time and removed from the modern age. This end result can be regarded as a contemporary update to the long tradition of church photography in England, namely Frederik Evans’ late 19th century imagery and Edwin Smith’s mid-20th century work.

Peter’s remarkable photographs bring into sharp relief the full splendour of the interiors of some of England’s most magnificent buildings, great symbols of spiritual and architectural power.

“When immersed in Peter’s photographs we are metaphorically in some kind of contemplative enclosure, if not a sanctuary: one that confronts us with our own sense of being. The forms captured here are simultaneously concrete and abstract: containers of history, light and, above all, space. Despite of, and in parallel with, the undeniable structure of the architectural edifice, Peter captures the intangible essence of all form that is generated by creative force: the enduring mystery of space within space.” Martin Barnes, The English Cathedral.