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 been transformed. It’s still an area of immigration, except now […]
These pictures were taken on a visit to Gloucester, New England in 2018. It’s America’s oldest fishing port, and is is still very much a working town, rather than a place tourists visit. Whilst I was there I discovered that Edward Hopper had visited the town in the 1920s, and one of the paintings he did there, mansard Roofs, launched his career at the age of 40. I can understand why he came. The light from the sea is beguiling […]
BLUEPRINT STUDIOS, COLLIER STREET, 7.18AM The windows of Blueprint Studios glowed red, like a 4 bar electric heater. Behind me, an upstairs room in The Eagle Inn beamed bright tungsten light towards Trinity Way, like a lighthouse for those stumbling in search of the past. Behind both brick buildings the new, taller version of ancient Greengate had emerged, not quite facing in the same direction. I considered if the demolition of the Victorian architecture, and the emergence of the tower […]
WATER STREET 7.07AM Yet again the weather forecast had failed me. Rain spattered into my glasses as the clouds above surged into the distance, following an unseen agenda that all below would simply have to cope with. Beneath where I was standing, near the Victoria and Albert hotel, a million droplets strafed the Irwell, causing the gulls to twist and swirl as if trying to throw off an attacking fighter plane. A business man stomped towards his large BMW, frowning […]
THE MEADOW, 6.31AM To reach Salford Meadow you have to zig-zag through small streets past newly built houses, where cars glimmer in drive ways just big enough to contain them. It’s obvious which are the kitchens and bathrooms in these homes, as they are the only ones lit. People briefly appear and swig swiftly from mugs, or materialise upstairs as monotone bulks behind frosted glass. I parked at the end of a fancily illuminated footbridge and made my way down […]