admin, Author at notquitelight.com

10 May 2015

THOMAS STREET, NORTHERN QUARTER 4.42AM

THOMAS STREET, 4.42AM – It was my first time photographing on a Saturday morning. The sodium lamps, neon and first gasp of dawn daylight created a filmic atmosphere, causing the buildings to look like the grand vision of a set designer, and the people in them extras, sent out on cue by a director eager to create the illusion of reality in this strange hour. This area of Manchester has, for centuries, been where people have come for pleasure, to […]

FROM OLD MILL TO THE END OF EMPIRE 0

07 May 2015

OLDHAM ROAD, ELECTION DAY, 4.57AM

OLDHAM ROAD, 4.57AM, ELECTION DAY – The alarm went off at 3.50am, and the birds were already chattering excitedly at the new dawn, like children up too early on their birthday. The sky hung darkly above, revealing patches of blue that reflected in puddles across empty streets and pitted car parks. The soft whirr of a milk float was all that intruded on the songs being whistled around me. I’d decided the night before on what I was going to […]

FROM OLD MILL TO THE END OF EMPIRE 0

07 May 2015

DERBY STREET, CHEETHAM HILL 5.15AM

DERBY STREET, CHEETHAM HILL 5.15AM – At 4AM, which is now my waking up time for Not Quite Light, I feel like death and it is only the thought of life that takes me from my tomb and out into the day. It was dark and felt as dawn could never arrive. Even the birds seemed reluctant to announce dawn this morning, as the consistent rain spattered onto the pavements. I made my way up towards Cheetham Hill to an […]

FROM OLD MILL TO THE END OF EMPIRE 0

29 Apr 2015

BACK ST-GEORGE’S ROAD 6.31AM

BACK ST. GEORGE’S ROAD 6.31AM – It rains a lot in Manchester, or so we become programmed to believe. Water follows our Mancunian lives each and every year, washing the streets and buildings. But not the cars it seems. I’d found the great American car wash by accident, and have never yet seen it in any other state than behind a barred gate and utterly shut. I’d love to know what, in particular, makes it an American car wash. Is […]

FROM OLD MILL TO THE END OF EMPIRE 0

26 Apr 2015

LUDGATE HILL, MANCHESTER 6.03AM

LUDGATE HILL 6.03AM – I’ve always felt that the soul of Not Quite Light lies in the streets around Angel Meadows. I keep being drawn back there, fascinated by the history of that small patch of ground that contains the bodies of 40,000 Mancunian ancestors, and that also inspired the work of Engels and Marx. There are buildings and towns that trade on ghosts and hauntings but never have I felt fearful of being so close to the bones of […]

FROM OLD MILL TO THE END OF EMPIRE 0

13 Apr 2015

EMPIRE TAKE-AWAY, EMPIRE STREET, CHEETHAM HILL 5.50AM

EMPIRE TAKE-AWAY, EMPIRE STREET 5.50AM – I’d gone to drive around Cheetham Hill the previous evening, to research for the shoot in the morning. It had been the day of the Manchester derby and United had won against a City team in decline. There were plenty of young lads still out celebrating, drunk and in small groups. The sky was as red as the Stretford End, and I watched cars patrol the streets, men in the driving seat looking for […]

FROM OLD MILL TO THE END OF EMPIRE 0

09 Apr 2015

DUCIE HOUSE, LAYSTALL STREET 6AM

DUCIE HOUSE, LAYSTALL STREET, 6AM – Ducie House used to be where the legendary Home nightclub banged out its tunes, and where I was once refused entry for not wearing “VIP” shoes. It was the early 90s hub for creative talent in the city and housed numerous designers, magazines and other young, unruly Mancs plotting to rule the world from their Manchester base. Its ground floor is now occupied by Urban Splash, planners of New Islington, a work in progress, […]

FROM OLD MILL TO THE END OF EMPIRE 0

07 Apr 2015

CAR PARK, DUCIE STREET, 6.33AM

CAR PARK, DUCIE STREET, 6.33AM – This morning, the first after the Easter holidays, I was awoken not by my alarm but by an industrious bird sensing dawn at 4.55am. There was a thin but effective mist hovering above the streets, and anyone that was out seemed to have bent down their heads, as if the weight of the fog was too much on this first day back to work. The sun was due to have risen at 6.33am but […]

FROM OLD MILL TO THE END OF EMPIRE 0

04 Apr 2015

LEVER STREET, MANCHESTER 6.00AM

LEVER STREET, MANCHESTER 6.00AM – On the streets at dawn there is a relationship to the space which feels highly personal, a temporary sense of ownership even. Without the distraction of traffic and people and purifying daylight there exists an awareness of detail often absent without the collusion of shadow and streetlight. Also, and unbeknownst to them, I’ve begun to develop a relationship with the workers of the morning, the hidden heroes of our city, who have become familiar to […]

FROM OLD MILL TO THE END OF EMPIRE 0

31 Mar 2015

JERSEY STREET, MANCHESTER 6.20AM

JERSEY STREET, MANCHESTER 6.20AM I was at a friend’s house recently and Scooby Doo was on. I noticed that the drawings of the deserted buildings were often depicted in the half light, with deep blue skies and vivid foreground colours. The sets were remarkably claustrophobic for a show loved by children, with no hint that there was another world beyond the blocked shadows. The first 2 days after the onset of British Summer Time brought gales that caused an unearthly […]

FROM OLD MILL TO THE END OF EMPIRE 0

Author Archives: admin

THOMAS STREET, NORTHERN QUARTER 4.42AM

OLDHAM ROAD, ELECTION DAY, 4.57AM

DERBY STREET, CHEETHAM HILL 5.15AM

BACK ST-GEORGE’S ROAD 6.31AM

LUDGATE HILL, MANCHESTER 6.03AM

EMPIRE TAKE-AWAY, EMPIRE STREET, CHEETHAM HILL 5.50AM

DUCIE HOUSE, LAYSTALL STREET 6AM

CAR PARK, DUCIE STREET, 6.33AM

LEVER STREET, MANCHESTER 6.00AM

JERSEY STREET, MANCHESTER 6.20AM

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NQL NEWSLETTER