CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE THE SLIDESHOW FULL SIZED When I began Not Quite Light in 2015, I spent quite a bit of time photographing in Ancoats, before a lot of the current regeneration had taken place. I was caused to revisit it recently, working for a client, and was somewhat taken aback at the amount of change that had taken place. There is still ‘old’ Manchester at the north eastern edge, but the streets towards the city have […]
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 […]
PORT STREET, 7.29AM I was helping a friend’s young boy build a Lego spacecraft the other day. It was too fiddly for him, and so I ended up spending an hour constructing a vision of the future whilst he went off and drew a house with crayons. I told his mum that when I was young we’d have a bag of bricks and make what we felt like. There was no need for instructions or showy add-ons that were too […]
OLD MILL STREET, NEW ISLINGTON 7.16AM In the still of dawn, before the roar of the day starts, the sound of birds chirruping is surprisingly strong amongst the sparse, winter branches and remains of old Manchester. I struggled to see any trees from where I was stationed, behind the Dispensary, which looked lost and lonely at the edge of a wasteland punctured and filled with pools of water, deep enough for your ankle to sink in. And yet still the […]
JERSEY STREET, ANCOATS, 6.07AM Is the sense of change greater with Autumn than with Spring? As the year ends, the dramatic death of the leaves and the darkened days are perhaps linked more to a fear of the unknown than the hope and anticipation that arrives with May blossom and longer evenings. I set up my camera at the top end of Jersey Street. The city centre was beyond view here, although it’s almost close enough to walk, and I […]
GUN STREET, ANCOATS 6.32AM Today the clocks were turned back. Rain lingered like a truculent teenager, smearing the cobbled streets of Ancoats with a Brylcreem sheen. The area is a work in progress. Old buildings, like patients screened off in a hospital ward, are surrounded by scaffolding, as the heart of the world’s first industrial city is given a new life by Manchester’s pacemakers. Original brickwork and Victorian grandeur have been retained where possible, causing streets which until recently were […]
JERSEY STREET, ANCOATS 6.41AM The top of Jersey Street is separated from the creators and new residents of the regenerated Ancoats by a small, humped bridge. In front of the estate, that looked towards the flourishing city centre skyline, had been placed a Free School. The grey, fenced in Portakabins caused it to look more like a holding centre for refugees than a place of learning for young children. A man in a hi-vis jacket was patrolling the gate as […]
LITTLE LEVER STREET, 6.50 AM The buildings clustered around Little Lever Street allow very little of the dawn light to touch their walls. The street lamps stay on longer here, straining to fill shadowed doorways with some kind of light, and it feels as if the ghosts of old Mancunia blend with the scent of rubbish that drifts along back streets not yet deemed worthy by the gentrifiers of the Northern Quarter. Above could be seen the Travelodge on Great […]
LITTLE LEVER STREET 6.51AM A SLOW MOMENT FILM The area around Little Lever Street, just off Great Ancoats Street is still awaiting gentrification. The buildings are struggling to remain and the small, dark streets are pock marked by rubbish. At dawn most of us are in that state of sleep that allows dreams to fill our minds, and in these half lit streets can sense the ghosts of old Mancunia as the area awaits its rescue. This film contains flickering. […]