Liverpool : 1972 – 2025 Volume 1
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Exploring East London’s Street Life in the 1980s
In 1985, Bethnal Green Road was lined with independent shops, and Saturdays in particular were always busy. There was a constant flow of people and plenty of opportunities for street photography.
In this photograph, the elderly man dominates the right foreground. His face is sharp and expressive, yet he is not obviously connected to the children. Behind him, an adult and two children create a quieter, more intimate scene. The eye moves naturally back and forth between these groups. What appeals to me is the way different generations coexist within a few feet of one another. The children are free to occupy the edge of the pavement, while adults and children share the public space in an easy, unselfconscious way.
The image captures a form of street life that has become less common as traffic, redevelopment and changing social habits have altered Bethnal Green Road quite dramatically over the years. I doubt whether toffee apples can still be bought there today.
The older man in the foreground is a crucial part of the composition. His animated expression brings humour and unpredictability to the photograph, injecting life into an otherwise quiet scene. Had he passed by a second earlier or later, the image would have felt very different.
The following day I was probably wandering around the Brick Lane Sunday market, looking for the next picture.
I photographed the three remarkable women featured in this photomontage on different occasions while wandering through London’s East End over several decades, my camera loaded with black-and-white film.
Although elderly, these women are anything but passive. Their gestures and expressions are animated, distinctive, and full of character. The figure on the left leans backwards in surprise and laughter, captured on Brick Lane. At the centre, a woman raises her cigarette in greeting as she smiles towards the landlady of the Golden Heart pub in Spitalfields. On the right, a woman clutches her handbag protectively while waiting for a bus on Mile End Road. Together, they challenge stereotypical portrayals of old age as static, diminished, or invisible.
In this work, I have combined documentary-style portraiture with surreal, cinematic visual effects. I have always been resistant to photographic representations of older people that rely on sentimentality. These women are not fragile victims; they are complex individuals whose presence commands attention. My aim was to give them both theatrical power and psychological depth.
The glowing light trails that envelop the figures suggest movement, vitality, and the passage of time, creating a scene that feels simultaneously documentary, symbolic, and dreamlike. Old age exists within the same fast-moving contemporary world that visual culture so often associates with youth. This photomontage is a tribute to lives fully lived, often, perhaps, under challenging circumstances, and to the resilience, humour, and individuality that endure throughout them.
Capturing Liverpool: The Dignity in Daily Life
I photographed this man on Smithdown Road as he paused for a break from work, or perhaps had just finished a hard day’s labour. His clothing suggests that he is a construction worker. His gaze indicates that he is neither fully engaged with the street nor withdrawn from it. He appears tired, yet content to be resting for a moment. There is a dignity about him as he removes a glove, while the empty pavement around him creates a sense of solitude and reflection.
The scene reminds me of my own time as a builder’s labourer on the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham during the 1970s. It was a holiday job while I was a student in Liverpool. Looking back, I suspect I learned as much about life on that building site as I did at university.
The photograph presents a man occupying a small corner of Liverpool, yet he gives the image its emotional weight. It speaks of work, waiting, place, and presence without explicitly naming any of them. It is a celebration of everyday life—one of those quiet moments that reveal a city’s character through the people who inhabit it. The image invites us to pause and recognise the dignity, resilience, and humanity found in ordinary lives.
I’ve always believed that breaking the “rules” of photography can open up creative possibilities that allow for a more visually expressive exploration of the human condition.
This photomontage is the collision of two images: one, a low-light photograph of a dancer during rehearsal; the other, a London nightscape dominated by streaks of light created through deliberate camera movement. I have also drawn over the final composite image. Although the figure is technically the subject, it is motion and light that ultimately dominate the experience.
The central figure stands isolated in profile, almost ghost-like. The face is blurred enough to erase individuality, transforming the person into something symbolic rather than personal—a mood, a memory, or a psychological state. He exists in stark contrast to the harsh electric streaks that surround him.
I’ve always loved walking through a city at night, and I’ve long felt that the trails of light captured while photographing evoke a fractured sense of time. Rather than preserving a single instant, the image compresses multiple moments into one. It becomes an exploration of the nocturnal urban landscape, held together by screeching, untouchable ribbons of light that resemble neural pathways. Perhaps it is closer to a surreal dreamscape—a place where you are lost, disoriented, and uncertain of how to find your way home. I’ve had many dreams like that.
You can buy a signed copy of my latest photo book here
Watch The Photographer – a short film about the photography of Phil Maxwell:
I took this photograph in Aldgate in 1991, when the area was caught between decline and redevelopment. The City of London was expanding eastward, Docklands regeneration was reshaping nearby districts, and roadworks and improvised infrastructure had become constant features of the streetscape.
The woman in the picture is signalling to the approaching bus to stop. I had been cycling through Aldgate and, instead of simply riding past, I got off my bike and stopped to talk with her. She told me that because it was only a temporary stop, drivers would often fail to notice people waiting and sometimes carried on without stopping.
Her walking stick, rather than suggesting vulnerability, became a symbol of determination and strength. She was absolutely intent on making that bus stop.
My bicycle, leaning in the foreground beside the makeshift barrier, became part of the scene too — a reminder that I was not a detached observer but briefly part of the same improvised urban choreography.
Aldgate has changed dramatically since 1991. What seemed at the time an ordinary roadside moment now reads as an archival record of a transitional East End landscape before large-scale commercial redevelopment transformed the area. As much as it is a portrait of a feisty East End woman, it is also a portrait of London itself: permanently unfinished, adapting in real time through makeshift solutions, resilience, and everyday encounters.
You can buy a signed copy of my latest photo book here
Watch The Photographer – a short film about the photography of Phil Maxwell:
