AJAX php gallery

I have a gallery on my site that needs to change when a user selects an option from the dropdown menu (the options represent locations).

At present I have the following two options:

<select class="form-control" id="photomenu">
    <option value="Beckmouth Area">Beckmouth Area</option>
    <option value="Barras Square area">Barras Square area</option>
</select>

My Jquery selects the chosen value and sends it to my AJAX request like so:

<script>
                 $(document).ready(function () {

                    $("#photomenu").change(function(){


                        var option = $("#photomenu option:selected").val();


                        var url = "access_database.php";

                        $.post(url, option, function(data)

                            {
                                $("#staithes_gallery").html(data)

                            });


                    }); 
                     });
                    </script>

My access_database.php looks like:

<?php 

$folder_location = $_GET["option"];

$path = "photos_staithes/Thumbnails/";

 //connect to staithesbooks table
 $servername = "localhost";
 $username = "***********";
 $password = "***********";
 $dbname = "*********";

 // Create connection
 $conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
 // Check connection
 if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
 } 

$sql_select_photo = "SELECT * FROM `staithesphotos` WHERE `folder` = '$folder_location'";

$results = $conn->query($sql_select_photo);

if ($results->num_rows > 0) {
    // output data of each row
    while($row = $results->fetch_assoc()) {

        //create a list of all names and folder locations
        $name[] = $row["name"];

    }

        //create the photo gallery
        for ($x=0; $x<count($name); $x++)
        {
            $photo_gallery .= "<div class='col-md-4 work-grid animated wow slideInLeft'>
                                <a href='$path$folder_lcation$name[$x]' data-lightbox='featured' data-title='' style='cursor:pointer'><div class='item'>
                                    <img src='$path$folder_location/$name[$x]' height='431' width='594' title='name' />
                                    <div class='caption' style='display: none;'>
                                        <h2>Some Title</h2>
                                        <p>This is a caption to end all captions</p>
                                    </div>
                                </div>  
                            </a></div>";    
        }

};


echo $photo_gallery;

?>

I have tested that the PHP works by providing a static file location for $folder_location.

Upon execution of the AJAX call I wish to update the html within #staithes_gallery with the new gallery.

Through testing and outputting the result to an alert box I simply receive object Object. I'm unsure what I am doing wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Ok, I have it working.

I had to use .html() and not .val()

Thanks!