Manc Land | H P Photography

Easy living - Northern Quarter

MANC LAND

An alternative photographic viewpoint

According to the Global Liveability Survey and Lonely Planet, Manchester is the most desirable city in the UK to live. In this dynamic and diverse city, how do we approach photographing its people, culture, environment, heritage and architecture? How do we capture Manchester’s heart and soul?

With digital recording devises at everyone’s disposal, coupled with the city’s rising population, the ever-increasing number of tourists and the country’s largest student population, Manchester has never been more photographed. But have attitudes and the approaches to recording this great city changed as a consequence?

What if the city itself was to take a selfie... In which direction would the camera be pointing?

I Love Manchester

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Abandoned - The Corner House art-house cinema

A common sight within the bohemian setting of the city’s Northern Quarter is the photography safari. Groups of enthusiastic snappers wearing high vis vests, who pay considerable amounts of money to be shepherded around the streets and directed to points of obvious visual interest – but are they looking in the right place?

Withy Grove, Shude Hill

Wet

Heritage

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Spreading the news

Every September, my students spend two days creating alternative postcards of Manchester, encouraged not to photograph the obvious (landmark buildings, the trams, buskers), we start to explore the edges of the city, areas where old and new money, lifestyles and attitudes merge or juxtapose, these are the locations that say most about the city and its people. Discarded objects and profound graffiti provide the small detail which can focus the mind and speak eloquently about a community – these twilight zones are the spaces that inspire the photographer.