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FROM OLD MILL TO THE END OF EMPIRE

20 Sep 2015

CORNELL STREET, ANCOATS, 6.24AM

CORNELL STREET, ANCOATS, 6.24AM It felt, on this early Autumn morning, that there was a boldness to the birds singing their dawn songs, and the night sky was showing early pools of blue. Clouds shrugged and melted away, leaving a definite zing in the air. Soon there was a simple, unspoilt patch of sapphire colour above me and the day promised to be clear. I arrived at the bottom of the terraced streets that lie behind the Express building, an […]

02 Sep 2015
passions-massage-parlour-manchester

PASSIONS, DUCIE STREET, 5.36AM

PASSIONS, DUCIE STREET, 5.36AM This morning there was the musk scent of early Autumn. I breathed in deeply, and the air rasped the inside of my nose, causing my nostrils to flare. A softening mist embroiled the warm, enticing lights that illuminated streets as old as the professions that once lined them. An open doorway at the side of Passions massage parlour, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, revealed stairs leading up to a first floor that […]

26 Aug 2015
radium-street-wing-yip-andcoats-manchester

RADIUM STREET, ANCOATS 5.43AM

RADIUM STREET, ANCOATS 5.43AM My alarm went off at 4am, and a couple of early birds were already chirruping as I turned on the light, causing me to hurry onto the street around 20 minutes later. In the the sky above me, though, there was not even a hint of daylight. For some reason, they’d begun their songs of hope a full hour before the dawn actually arrived, and I felt deceived. I pulled up my hood against the thumping […]

01 Aug 2015
store street piccadilly manchester

STORE STREET, PICCADILLY 4.43AM

STORE STREET, PICCADILLY 4.43AM When I can see that the dawn will be clear and rain free, I try to look East, where, behind Ancoats, the sky begins its daytime shift soft and golden. As this morning began there was a stillness in the area, at odds with its past and its future intentions. Here, amongst tatty trees and unruly undergrowth, living is slowly encroaching upon working as factory units begin to quietly retreat, and flats trespass further into what […]

26 Jul 2015
swan street nomo manchester CIS

A PATCH OF GREEN, SWAN STREET 4.29AM

A PATCH OF GREEN, SWAN STREET 4.29AM I wasn’t intending to get up on this morning, but I was awoken by a panic dream, in which I was photographing in Manchester, but it was unrecognisable, and the dawn was taking away the darkness too quickly for me. So, unable to rest my mind, I left my bed and made my way down towards Victoria station. Along Swan Street two male friends were crossing towards the car park beneath the glowing […]

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