I’ve been out a couple of times this week, producing pictures for this project. On Sunday evening I was down at the Corn Exchange. The skater kids left behind quite some mess and it’s possible I witnessed a couple having an affair, as they seemed very nervous when I set up near them. At dawn on Wednesday I was at the Vita building, which is part of the First Street area. The photographic part of the project will be finished […]
The Not Quite Light project is featured in the latest Monitor Creative online magazine. CLICK HERE
NEW BRIDGE STREET 3.10AM – 4.50AM Since starting this particular series of Not Quite Light I’ve realized quite how little I know about the Irwell. Its path is that of an uncoiling snake, and I couldn’t easily draw it out if asked. It’s a river that, during the industrial revolution, both Manchester and Salford turned their backs on, polluting it for profit, and it often feels hidden away like an embarrassing member of the family that they don’t know what […]
Read the new post from the project “From Trinity To The Crescent” To read more click on the link
COW LANE, SALFORD 3.14AM – 4.15AM The turning point of the year, the Longest Day, had not long ended when I arrived. The much heralded Strawberry Moon was losing its fight with overpowering clouds that, for now, reflected prismatic city lights and lunar brilliance but which, at daybreak, would be revealed as grey and unloved. I settled next to a cement works that hummed and clanked, but revealed no human form, despite there being several illuminated huts. Away in the […]
ST.MARY’S PARSONAGE, MANCHESTER 3.29AM There is no more accurate an alarm than nature. The first, single call of dawn this morning was sharp and distinct, and I actually saw it happen. A blackbird, unaware that I’d snook down a small alley off St. Mary’s Parsonage, and onto a paved area that looked over the Irwell from Manchester, was perched on spiked rails to my right, and was signalling the arrival of a new day. When I turned to look it […]
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 […]
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 […]
EMPIRE STREET 7.13AM The dawn promised little. It was overcast, leaving the buildings below to supply the colour. When it’s like this the day is often slow to start, giving me time to consider what it is that I want to photograph. “From Old Mill To The End Of Empire” is very nearly at its end as a ‘stills’ project and so I decided that I would go to Empire Street, which forms one of the boundaries that I’ve set […]