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26 Feb 2017
River irwell near water street manchester

ORDSALL CHORD, MANCHESTER 7.07AM

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 […]

28 Sep 2016
silk street adelphi salford

SILK STREET, SALFORD 6.23AM

SILK STREET, 6.23AM There’s an area just off Bury New Road that I’ve wanted to photograph for a while. It’s a place still of the old city, where mixed Mancunians chance their lives on numerous ventures, trading goods of varying quality and legality from around the world. As the streets lead away from the main road there is a sense of decay, and clustered rubbish sullies the paths and kerbs, as if a great tide has swept in, depositing the […]

19 Aug 2016

MONITOR CREATIVE MAGAZINE

The Not Quite Light project is featured in the latest Monitor Creative online magazine. CLICK HERE

20 Jul 2016
guided walk manchester

NEW BRIDGE STREET 3.10AM – 4.05AM

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 […]

04 Jul 2016
oldfield road salford cow lane beetham tower

COW LANE, SALFORD 3.06AM -4.15AM

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 […]

05 Jan 2016
Oldham Street in Manchester

OLDHAM STREET 7.35AM

OLDHAM STREET 7.35AM The previous night I’d begun to read The Manchester Man, written by Mrs Linnaeus Banks and published in 1876. It details the life of Jabez Clegg, who was rescued in his cradle from the flooding River Irk, and adopted by the kind and hard working Simon Clegg, and Bess, his saintly daughter. This act of absolute altruism is set against the conditions of work and life that Mancunians had to exist in during the early 19th Century. […]

15 Dec 2015
Sadlers yard Noma Manchester

SADLER’S YARD, NOMA 7.20AM

SADLER’S YARD 7.20AM When my kids were little I used to love building them sandcastles. Hours would be spent constructing walls, towers and moats. I even used to dig channels to aid the sea in its inevitable destruction of something I’d been proud to have built. And then tomorrow, the beach would again be the same, but changed, as new fathers elbowed their children out of the way during their quest to achieve as much as they could before the […]

24 Nov 2015
whittle's croft in manchester at dawn

WHITTLE’S CROFT, MANCHESTER 6.17AM

WHITTLE’S CROFT 6.17AM The rain was bouncing off my hood, the tippy-tap noise being my only company in this small side street tucked away behind Ducie House. I saw no-one and no-one saw me. If I’d been more of an animal than my modern, city self I’d have gone to shelter on higher ground. The lemming leaves lay dead on the ground, except for two which remained like young lovers looking into the sunset on the last night of their […]

08 Nov 2015
garage on cheetham hill road

CHEETHAM HILL ROAD 6.06AM

CHEETHAM HILL ROAD 6.06AM I was house sitting for a friend in the south of the city, and he’d kindly lent me his car to use whilst he was away. It’s a lovely car. Big, white as an American’s teeth and full of fancy features that somewhat confuse me. I felt like a pimp as I parked it down a side road just off Cheetham Hill Road. I’d seen the picture I wanted to take a few days beforehand. It […]

01 Nov 2015
Jersey Street Ancoats Dawn

JERSEY STREET, ANCOATS, 6.07AM

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 […]

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