Photography

Photography

When it became clear that Manchester was about to change forever, I spent countless unpaid hours (over many years) clambering across rooftops and tramping streets – with tripod, premium Canon ‘L’ lenses and a compass – working out myriad angles and how the fall of seasonal sunlight affected Manchester stone and brickwork: – I’ve built up a library of (tens of)? thousands of original Manchester images.

As expected, most of the city’s best vistas and visages have gone – though not before I captured the best ones in their glory.   

In tandem with Manchester, I’ve spent years capturing much of England’s North West in its best light, along with football grounds, Lancashire, Ribble and Pendle, North Yorkshire and the Dales, Northumberland, The Cotswolds, London, Edinburgh… not to mention more generic observational gems, some great clubbing images and Spanish architectural jewels like Salamanca and Santiago de Compostela.

I sold prints of my work in Manchester’s legendary Royal Exchange Theatre (Craft) Shop for over 20 years, as well as other outlets like the shop at HOME (formerly Cornerhouse).

As with those great Manchester vistas, outlets for artistic originality in the city have always been scarce, but COVID has killed off most of them (along with my enthusiasm for swimming against the tide of grovelling mediocrity), and the once-successful Royal Exchange Craft shop is now an lifeless, empty shell.

Anyhow, now I have time on my hands and nothing to sell, maybe I’ll dig out some of the many Manchester (and North of England) Classic images and turn them into a written guide to what good photography actually is.
For those with seeing eyes – Vive la Difference.