THE GRANDSON of a Dad's Army actor has brought an ambitious seven-year project to Weymouth to rewrite the history of lifeboat stations up and down the country.

Photographer Jack Lowe, grandson of Dad’s Army actor Arthur Lowe called into Weymouth Lifeboat Station to take a set of photos of the crew as part of The Lifeboat Station Project.

The project, which began in January 2015, will see Jack visiting all 238 RNLI lifeboat stations in the UK and Republic of Ireland, photographing the view from each station along with the crew and Coxswain/Senior Helm using Wet Plate Collodion, a Victorian process that allows him to record stunning images on glass.

Jack has loved the RNLI since he was a little boy and became a member of Storm Force, the charity’s club for children, aged 10 – a couple of years after he picked up his first camera.

He then brought his two passions together to start the project.

Jack, from Newcastle upon Tyne, travels in Neena — a decommissioned NHS ambulance purchased on eBay which is converted into a mobile darkroom.

The seven-year project is one of the biggest photographic projects ever undertaken and, when finished, will be the first complete photographic record of every single lifeboat station on the RNLI network.

Jack, said: “My early childhood was spent on a Victorian schooner in Ramsgate harbour and on the Thames.

"My Dad is an experienced seafarer and introduced me to the wonders of lifeboats – these incredible, powerful pieces of kit designed for heroic, life-saving missions on stormy seas.

“From an early age, I knew that I wanted to be a photographer and lifeboat volunteer when I grew up.

"Now I’m following my heart and uniting the two dreams.

"I’m using a photographic technique developed in the 1850s, around the time that the RNLI was incorporated under Royal Charter.

"The photographs are made directly onto glass plates known as ‘Ambrotypes’.

When Jack visited crews in Weymouth, he made the portraits using a camera made in 1905 and then developed the images in his mobile darkroom.

The volunteer lifeboat crew members were then able to step into the ambulance and watch as their portraits appeared on the glass plates – an experience Jack says they find fascinating, and sometimes very moving.

Jack continued: "The word photography means drawing with light and that is how I think about it still. I adore photography in this very raw, basic form — light falling on chemicals.

"It really is magical – the final image is always a surprise, even to me."