Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (1853-1941) was a nationally and internationally acclaimed pioneering photographer who helped to develop photography as an art form. Sutcliffe worked in Whitby from the mid 1870's until his death. Most of his photographs for which he is now famous, were taken out of season. They include many of the harbour, fishing boats and fishermen.

Sutcliffe was a local photographer in Whitby, North Yorkshire in the UK, he is its second most famous figure, after Dracula, though the explorer Cook also came from there. At the start of his career he used the wet collodion process, changing to dry plates shortly after these were introduced. Most of his work was taken on 'whole plate' cameras with an image size of 8½ x 6½ inches.

As well as taking portraits of his studio customers, Sutcliffe took his camera out into the town, photographing virtually every street and alley, as well as the various developments during this period. His photography was very much in the style that Dr Peter H Emerson dubbed 'naturalistic photography', attempting to capture the everyday activities of the place and people in a seemingly natural and unposed manner (even when using exposures of several seconds).

Much of the charm of his pictures reflects the charm of the small fishing town, with its steep streets falling to the river and giving dramatic vistas of the ruined Abbey on the hill opposite. Ships in sail, children playing naked on the beach, carefully but naturally posed groups on the rocks or by the harbour rail all paint a picture of a long-vanished time and place.

There is still a Sutcliffe Gallery in the town, just round the corner from his old studio, and still printing and selling his work, though now from copy negatives on modern papers, as well as a thriving trade in books, postcards and calendars. Sutcliffe's work achieves that rare combination of quality and popular appeal. His obvious love of Whitby, Staithes and other nearby villages shines through. Sutcliffe retired from photography in 1922 and became curator of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society, a position he held until his death in 1941.