CHAPEL STREET, SALFORD, 3.42AM I haven’t read much about it but, apparently, having two sleeps during the night used to be normal. Now that dawn is around 3am I’ve had to start sleeping at around nine-thirty, get up to do my work at about two, and then go back to sleep at around six. The consequence of this is that my mind is swamped by vivid dreams, often about my life already lived melding awkwardly with the one I now […]
MARK ADDY, NEW BAILEY, 4.01AM There’s a new post from my Not Quite Light Project “From Trinity To The Crescent” To read CLICK HERE
MARK ADDY, NEW BAILEY, 4.01AM Bailey. Such an English name. Indeed, the last time I visited this area was to witness a grown man arrive on a boat festooned in Union Jacks, bolstered by a giddy entourage belting out Land Of Hope And Glory as the vessel came to rest at the Mark Addy pub. Since then the Irwell has flooded, suffocating the Salford landmark with cloying mud, and perhaps closing it forever. Manchester and Salford seemed to turn their […]
SALE ARTS TRAIL 2016 9TH / 10TH JULY For the 3rd year running I’m delighted to be taking part in the excellent Sale Arts Trail. It’s a wonderful event that has gone from strength to strength due to the dedication of the organisers Jo Lavelle and Sophie Nixon, who are both artists. I’ll be showing and selling work from my projects and also doing a walk and talk at dusk along the canalside. I’ve created an events page – CLICK […]
OLDFIELD ROAD 4.26AM There was warmth in the air, and I had hope when I set off. The sky was clear and there was the promise of rich colour in the dawn sky as I made my way down to Oldfield Road and James Street, near the war memorial and Islington Mill, which houses so many artists. It’s obvious that Salford now has ambition to change, with boards going up around derelict land like screens around the body of an […]
QUEEN STREET 4.32AM This dawn was, I imagine, how most people think of daybreak. The sky was a swirled mess of blues and greys, with the clouds pink and fluffy like the pom-poms on a show poodle. Birds sweetly sang in trees beyond my eyes and geese on the nearby Irwell barked distant warnings. The streets were almost free of traffic, whilst in the apartments behind me, some lights still glowed, although no moving silhouette gave away any life within […]
CATHEDRAL APPROACH, 5.52AM When I opened my front door on this morning I actually flinched. I wasn’t expecting a thick mist, and the pool of light, spread by the fog around the street lamps, made the familiar jar my expectations, as if I’d entered the wrong world. In many ways I couldn’t have wished for better weather to start this new version of Not Quite Light. The work will take me across the Irwell into the cities of Manchester and […]
The work ‘From Old Mill To The End Of Empire’ was recently displayed as a slideshow as part of the Not Quite Light weekend. This is the slideshow. NOT QUITE LIGHT PRESENTS… from Simon Buckley on Vimeo.
Livesey Street, 7.28AM The previous day marked 12 months since my first post on Not Quite Light. In that time I’ve become very familiar with the area stretching from Old Mill Street in New Islington to Empire Street in Cheetham Hill. And, like a parent noticing the subtle changes in their child’s development, I’ve seen a steady revision of the streets and wasteland that form the area in which I’ve photographed. There are few roads and alleyways that I haven’t […]
DUCIE STREET 7.18AM This was a morning when nothing much happened. The rain fell in great globules before declaring its ceasefire on the streets for rush hour. The need to keep the camera dry had helped me find a cubby hole on Ducie Street, a hidden entrance to a new building above the old canal. Beneath the bridge there was an opened sleeping bag and some cans, evidence that someone had been sleeping on the towpath. They were gone now […]