Retrospective: Adventure Playground
As a child I remember playing for many hours on building sites. One of these sites sat snugly behind a local pub. There were many signs erected telling parents to keep children off the site; as we were playing on the site for many years before it became a ‘building site’ we felt we had every right to play on it during the construction period.
Four boys in empty terraced house. Toxteth, Liverpool 1980
The boys in this photograph appeared from nowhere and posed for this shot. It was later used for an article on inner city housing and was the poster image for my photomonth exhibition ‘As It Is’ in 1998.
Boy on Bicycle. Liverpool 1979
My childhood memories are festooned with bicycle memories. I lived in a small terraced house with my parents and 5 sisters. My bicycle was my escape into the world. I still recall the sheer joy of free wheeling onto the pavement outside my house, turning left and then right to cross the road for a 20 minute journey to Cardinal Wiseman boys school in ‘Potters Green’. I got my bike as a Christmas present in 1964; it was my pride and joy and vehicle to freedom.
The Liverpool 8 Defence Committee prepares to March, Liverpool 1982
Events leading to the riots in Liverpool 30 years ago were echoed again this year in Brixton. The tactics of the police in Brixton and Liverpool 30 years ago were heavily criticised in the ‘Scarman’ report. The demonstrators (above) were calling for the resignation of the Chief Constable Mr Ken Oxford.
These exhibition Lambda C Type images are printed on paper measuring 59cm x 59cm and mounted on 5mm foam board. As exhibition single prints they are for sale at £200 (with a certificate of authentication signed by the photographer). For purchase please contact Rossana at mercaditoproductions@hotmail.com
An intriguing tranquility for this toddler who blockades the entrance to a shop in Lodge Lane, Liverpool 1982
Retrospective: Liverpool Bicycle
For a few years in the late 70’s and early 80’s vast tracts of former housing land lay deserted and abandoned. I say abandoned because I remember many of the small terraced houses appeared to have been vacated in a rush as if the occupants were escaping some kind of danger. No doubt when I was in these lonely time capsules my mind was working overtime. I remember cupboards with bread and milk and discarded items of clothing. A number of kitchens had a plastic glove left on a window sil next to the sink. All of these items appeared as totems of a world that had moved on. However my exploration of these empty places was not In Memoriam. It felt as if the street had just gone away to Rhyll for the holiday fortnight.
Boy riding his bicycle off Princess Avenue. Liverpool 1980
The cyclist appeared as if from nowhere to complete the composition. He breaths life, hope and a sense of freedom into the arid wasteland his bicycle easily negotiates. No matter what was waiting for him at home or in school nothing could compare to the euphoria from his temporary domination of the landscape.
This exhibition Lambda C Type image is printed on paper measuring 59cm x 59cm and mounted on 5mm foam board. As an exhibition single print it is for sale at £200 (with a certificate of authentication signed by the photographer). For purchase please contact Rossana at mercaditoproductions@hotmail.com
Retrospective: Liverpool Home
The boy in this photograph followed me from the top of the road to the point where I took this photograph of him. At the time I recall studying the work of Humphrey Spender who was involved in the Mass Observation Project.
Based in Bolton, a team of paid investigators went into a variety of public situations: meetings, religious occasions, sporting and leisure activities, in the street and at work, and recorded people’s behaviour and conversation in as much detail as possible. Humphrey Spender supplemented the more traditional work of diarists with a photographic study. I was struck by Spender’s ability to capture scenes apparently without being seen. His ‘fly on the wall’ approach gave his images an authenticity that eclipsed any photograph that hinted at the presence of the photographer. In the coming decades I began to develop a range of techniques that would enable me to get to the heart of a composition without the people in it being aware of my photographic intent. The photograph of the boy (below) benefits from a more ‘formal’ technique anabling full use of depth of field and a few vauable seconds to compose the subject within the context of the surrounding Council Estate and the ‘Neo-Gothic’ Anglican Cathedral.
Boy in Liverpool 8 with Anglican Cathedral in the background. 1976
The photograph of the small boy (above 1976) was taken with his full knowledge. Indeed he pestered me for a minute or so as I walked down the road. Wearing my camera around my neck would normally mean that children would ask you to take their photograph!
This exhibition Lambda C Type image is printed on paper measuring 59cm x 59cm. For sale at £200 (with a certificate of authentication signed by the photographer). For purchase please contact Rossana at mercaditoproductions@hotmail.com
Room With A View
The window (below) has seen many changes over the past 30 years. What was once a wasteland is now full of housing and clean streets. The wasteland drew car boot sales to it at the weekend; though lots of the ‘car boots’ were without cars.
Window view onto Whitechapel 1998
The most recent view (below) hints at the changes from the ‘wasteland’ in the following photographs.
View from a window through an empty glass vase. Whitechapel 2011.
View from a window. Whitechapel 1984
Man with a cap on Whitechapel waste land, 1985
Q & A after the film
Feet of the questioner and questioned. Wilton's Music Hall, October 4, 2011
Feet of the questioner and questioned. Wilton's Music Hall, October 4, 2011
Photographs by Amiri Shongeeth
