When I took ‘Rainstorm’, as it’s come to be known, on August 1st, 2019, just before 6pm, I had no idea it would become such a phenomenon. I almost didn’t post it, thinking there were details in the composition that could be improved, and that I might not want to further enhance the myth of Manchester being the rainiest city in the United Kingdom ( it isn’t, Cardiff is ).
When I pressed send on Twitter, I put away my phone and sat quietly on the tram home, not thinking to look again until nearly an hour later, when I realised something astonishing had happened. Firstly the well known DJ and writer Dave Haslam retweeted it, then Thom Hetherington, who runs the Manchester Art fair, and then celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Derren Brown propelled it further around the world.
YOU CAN BUY SIGNED RAINSTORM PRINTS & OTHER MERCHANDISE HERE
By the evening I was inundated by requests for prints. I was also seeing strange posts, and comments from people who either claimed the picture was theirs, or that they’d been standing near me as I took it. Others talked as if they had a direct line into my head, suggesting they knew what I was thinking and intending when I took it.
The success of the photograph, therefore, out of nowhere, had a profound impact on me and it took some time to accept that. And so, on the first anniversary I decided to quietly return to the location and take some time to observe the scene before me, and the effect it had on my life and work. It was after the end of the first lockdown, and a second wave seemed imminent. The street below was much quieter than the year before, with much reduced traffic and fewer pedestrians. The two constants were rain and cyclists, due mostly to the delivery riders that had become so commonplace during the pandemic.
I decided to take a photograph. To the left of the composition and tower had now been built, blocking the space in the left top corner, and fundamentally changing the feel and rhythm of the image, diminishing the open view. The flow of the street was diluted by absence, and the new iPhone camera I had caused the image to be more sharp and colourful, an effect that caused the 2020 picture to be more sterile, less atmospheric.
I now return each year, now an annual pilgrimage, an opportunity to compare and contrast this famous old area of the city centre, to see what has changed and what remains.
Certainly the comparison with Lowry, that the original Rainstorm attracted is no longer valid in the photographs from the subsequent years. They feel somehow more modern, and the essence of the city that so appealed to Mancunians around the world in ‘Rainstorm’ has perhaps been been diminished by the changes I’ve witnessed on my subsequent visits.
The latest version is here, and you can see how much the skylone has changed over 5 years.
