not quite light Archives - Page 5 of 6

02 Sep 2015

PASSIONS, DUCIE STREET, 5.36AM

PASSIONS, DUCIE STREET, 5.36AM This morning there was the musk scent of early Autumn. I breathed in deeply, and the air rasped the inside of my nose, causing my nostrils to flare. A softening mist embroiled the warm, enticing lights that illuminated streets as old as the professions that once lined them. An open doorway at the side of Passions massage parlour, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, revealed stairs leading up to a first floor that […]

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26 Aug 2015

radium-street-wing-yip-andcoats-manchester

RADIUM STREET, ANCOATS 5.43AM

RADIUM STREET, ANCOATS 5.43AM My alarm went off at 4am, and a couple of early birds were already chirruping as I turned on the light, causing me to hurry onto the street around 20 minutes later. In the the sky above me, though, there was not even a hint of daylight. For some reason, they’d begun their songs of hope a full hour before the dawn actually arrived, and I felt deceived. I pulled up my hood against the thumping […]

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01 Aug 2015

STORE STREET, PICCADILLY 4.43AM

STORE STREET, PICCADILLY 4.43AM When I can see that the dawn will be clear and rain free, I try to look East, where, behind Ancoats, the sky begins its daytime shift soft and golden. As this morning began there was a stillness in the area, at odds with its past and its future intentions. Here, amongst tatty trees and unruly undergrowth, living is slowly encroaching upon working as factory units begin to quietly retreat, and flats trespass further into what […]

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07 Jul 2015

JUTLAND STREET, MANCHESTER 3.48AM

JUTLAND STREET, MANCHESTER 3.48AM – Jutland Street is perhaps the oddest street in Manchester. There seems to be no hill for it to have emerged from and yet there it is, steep as a Pennine and cobbled just like streets in the black and white memories of our grandparents. I was perched at Jutland’s summit under a Bible bright moon, that was defiantly refusing to leave the dawn sky above Piccadilly’s modern structures. To my right two men scuttled down […]

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17 Jun 2015

JERSEY STREET, ANCOATS, 6.33AM

JERSEY STREET, ANCOATS 6.33AM – There’s a sense of growing affection for Ancoats. No longer do people scurry from doorway to cab, fearful of being mugged, or “taxed” as I recently heard a Glaswegian refer to it. Ancoats is maybe the best of Manchester’s efforts to reinvent itself. The area used to pulse with endeavour, power and anger but now, whilst it still gives sanctuary to its ghosts, it increasingly neutralises their presence. Soon the streets around the dark brick […]

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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 […]

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02 Mar 2015

REDBANK, MANCHESTER, 7.33AM

REDBANK, MANCHESTER, 7.33AM About a week ago, during one of my evening walks with my flatmate, a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties, approached us just near Redbank. She was well dressed in a knee length skirt, low heeled boots and a coat. She spoke with an Australian accent. “Good evening gents, sorry to bother you but I’m lost” she said. “I’m supposed to be meeting a male friend under an arch near here, we’re off to take some photographs […]

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22 Feb 2015

NEW GEORGE STREET, SMITHFIELD SQUARE, MANCHESTER. 7.32AM

NEW GEORGE STREET, SMITHFIELD SQUARE, MANCHESTER. 7.32AM Despite there being two chain hotels and a new apartment block surrounding Smithfield Square, the only colour was from the light of the Spar. The architects of the flats have tried to make an effort with some blocks of yellow, but somehow it feels like they’ve used the last bits of Lego left in the bag. I’m never quite sure why so much of the new architecture in Manchester is grey, and there […]

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16 Feb 2015

CAGED JAGUAR, FARADAY STREET. 7.35AM

CAGED JAGUAR, FARADAY STREET. 7.35AM Manchester is unfairly famed for its rain. If it’s raining in Manchester, then somewhere else along the west of Britain is also getting it, and I’d rather this new, soft water than drought and lime. It’s not easy to photograph in though. The camera drips miserably and the lens needs constant attention. This morning my hood was up and my chilled hands were thrust deep into dampened pockets. A bin lorry, or waste re-cycling vehicle, […]

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12 Feb 2015

THE ANGEL, MANCHESTER 6.55am

THE ANGEL, MANCHESTER 6.55am Each morning I only have around 35 minutes to work in, before the light lifts and the street lamps go off. People who are on their way to work in this transient half light have tense faces, they resist eye contact, shoulders are hunched, there are no smiles. There’s a sense of isolation. Great Ancoats Street and Swan Street sometimes feel to me as if they are a tarmac moat, nestled between the city centre and […]

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Tag : not quite light

PASSIONS, DUCIE STREET, 5.36AM

RADIUM STREET, ANCOATS 5.43AM

STORE STREET, PICCADILLY 4.43AM

JUTLAND STREET, MANCHESTER 3.48AM

JERSEY STREET, ANCOATS, 6.33AM

DERBY STREET, CHEETHAM HILL 5.15AM

REDBANK, MANCHESTER, 7.33AM

NEW GEORGE STREET, SMITHFIELD SQUARE, MANCHESTER. 7.32AM

CAGED JAGUAR, FARADAY STREET. 7.35AM

THE ANGEL, MANCHESTER 6.55am

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