"I sometimes think that, as residents of Littlehampton, we take our town for granted, never really looking at it,”

says photographer Emma Storey, who aims to challenge that complacency with her digitally altered images which reframe gentle rows of beach huts in glowing neon and the harbour in a painterly blur.

“I decided to explore the town photographically, avoiding the more obvious landmarks and looking closely at subjects that might ordinarily pass us by – streets we walk down every day, buildings so familiar we no longer really see them – at different times of day, during different seasons and under varying light conditions.”

As the results go on show at Littlehampton Museum, she adds, “I hope residents are inspired to take a fresh look at their town.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by graphic artist and fellow exhibitor Steve Carroll, who immortalises Sussex streets in comic book form as well as hosting monthly “sketch crawls” where artists are encouraged to eat, drink and draw their way around Brighton, Worthing and Littlehampton.

“I remember seeing other graphic artists depict Cornwall while on holiday there and I thought Sussex could more than hold its own,” he says.

Trained in graphic design and illustration, Carroll, who lives in Goring, initially worked at a Sussex design and print company but turned to writing and drawing graphic novels when he was made redundant. His immersion in that world was “a revelation”

he says.

“I realised it was limitless in subject matter and so varied in style.” Like photographer Cindy Sherman, who called her images “stills from movies that haven’t been made yet”, Carroll thinks of his drawings as “frames from comics that haven’t been written”.

He draws with Indian ink on to Bristol board then scans his drawings on to his computer where he gives them the appearance of screen prints.

“Drawing by hand is like your signature – always unique. I don’t like things to look mechanical and even the images drawn with a mouse have ‘errors’ to make them look more human. The work in the exhibition represents what I have created in the past ten years, since I decided to incorporate hand drawing with the Mac.”

* See more of Carroll’s work at the Arundel Festival in August and at art trails and open houses in Worthing, Brighton, Littlehampton and Chichester this summer. The next Sussex Sketchcrawlers takes place in Littlehampton on July 22 and in Arundel on August 16. Find out more on the Facebook page, Sussex Sketchcrawlers.

* Emma Storey’s Looking At Littlehampton and Steve Carroll’s Sussex run until May 16 at Littlehampton Museum in Church Street.

Visit littlehampton-tc.gov.uk