being part of a Tate Collective project

Back in April 2021, I was selected as one of 30 winners in a Don McCullin inspired project taking photographs of the North West. It was an honour to be part of such a wonderful experience , having my work displayed alongside some seriously talented photographers. My photo was put on a billboard in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle as well as being exhibited in the fabulous Tate Liverpool.

The photo I took was of Castlefield Bowl in Manchester, under the bridges and railway arches, I titled it ‘onwards and upwards’ because of its different rising layers surrounding the walkers in the distance making their way up the path.

“I like this part of old Manchester, with its canals, bridges and hidden places; the Victorian railway arches frame the modern towers with their tops shrouded in mist. This is the cellar of the city. It’s ominously quiet with the bar locked down, apart from the echoing shrieks from the rattling trams and trains above. The walkers are ascending from the gloomy depths back into the light through the tunnels ahead.”

The title I conjured resonated, this was the first time since the pandemic began that I had returned to Manchester, and especially Castlefield Bowl wherein 2019 I had attended a gig there. The humongous, buzzing crowds had been replaced with the echoing shrieks from the trains and trams ahead which filled the space fractionally compared to the music loving crowds pre-covid. The name ‘onwards and upwards’ felt like a somewhat fitting and uplifting title to commemorate the post lockdown era in which I at the time was slowly escaping.