Andy Robertson has been photographing Greater Manchester for nearly 40 years.
Now on one level there is nothing unusual about that, but what marks Andy’s work off as different is that he will return to the same site recording the changes over a stretch of years.
In many cases it starts with his spotting a derelict building and with that tenacity I admire he will return photographing its demolition, the moment the builders go in to break the ground on a new development and the slow rise of that new property.
Nor is that all because he will also research the site and where possible come up with images from when that derelict building was bright, busy and happy.
The “Andy Local Image Collection” now consists of over 9,600 photographs and they are a wonderful history of how the Twin Cities and the surrounding areas of Greater Manchester have been transformed.
Added to which many are fine pictures in their own right, so much so that some have been used by Peter Topping who has painted them and many have appeared in the books that Peter and I have written about Manchester.
Nor are all of them of buildings.
One of my favourites is of a shop window in Shudehill, taken last year, which perfectly captures those tiny enterprises which cluing on in the corners of the twin cities which are fast undergoing gentrification.
I first met Andy on a history walk I did back in 2012, and since then he has become a regular contributor to the blog, clocking up an impressive 388 stories with plenty more waiting to go live.
We are all familiar with the images of Manchester and Salford, taken by Victorian and Edwardian photographers and that vast collection created during the middle years of the last century.
They are plundered by everyone from professional historians, to commercial companies and of course all those fascinated by our past, which I admit includes me.
All of us use them to capture what it was like to live in the twin cities and the contrasts to the present.
I know that Andy’s pictures will be up there, used for decades to come and will be the bench mark to judge what we have done with where we live.
And amongst those images there are some magnificent buildings, along with a fair amount of dross.
Neither of us wallow in nostalgia and there is no doubting that places like the Quays and Media City are exciting places to visit.
That said I am not so sure abouts ome of the other new bits.
These for me include chunks of of Spinnyfield, Redbank, and the Northern Quarter along with those tall new towers which march across the landscape and can be seen from miles outside the twin cities bounadries.
So that is it, , leaving me only to thank Andy and his daughter and son who like him are fired to photograph what they see.
Location; the Twin Cities and beyond, 1990- 2018 from the collection of Andy Robertson
 |
| A striking view, 2018 |
In many cases it starts with his spotting a derelict building and with that tenacity I admire he will return photographing its demolition, the moment the builders go in to break the ground on a new development and the slow rise of that new property.
Nor is that all because he will also research the site and where possible come up with images from when that derelict building was bright, busy and happy.
 |
| Shudehill, 2017 |
Added to which many are fine pictures in their own right, so much so that some have been used by Peter Topping who has painted them and many have appeared in the books that Peter and I have written about Manchester.
Nor are all of them of buildings.
 |
| Hulme, 1992 |
I first met Andy on a history walk I did back in 2012, and since then he has become a regular contributor to the blog, clocking up an impressive 388 stories with plenty more waiting to go live.
We are all familiar with the images of Manchester and Salford, taken by Victorian and Edwardian photographers and that vast collection created during the middle years of the last century.
They are plundered by everyone from professional historians, to commercial companies and of course all those fascinated by our past, which I admit includes me.
All of us use them to capture what it was like to live in the twin cities and the contrasts to the present.
 |
| Chester Road, 2017 |
And amongst those images there are some magnificent buildings, along with a fair amount of dross.
Neither of us wallow in nostalgia and there is no doubting that places like the Quays and Media City are exciting places to visit.
That said I am not so sure abouts ome of the other new bits.
 |
| Media City, 2017 |
So that is it, , leaving me only to thank Andy and his daughter and son who like him are fired to photograph what they see.
Location; the Twin Cities and beyond, 1990- 2018 from the collection of Andy Robertson
No comments:
Post a Comment