graffiti

Manchester concrete

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The Mancunian Way is a monumental slab of concrete that takes traffic around Manchester. Bizarrely, I spent a hot summer’s morning beneath its might. READ MORE BELOW

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I went to the Cambridge Street Junction, a large island which sits underneath the bulk of the elevated highway. It’s lined with trees and has a series of pedestrian underpasses enabling people to walk from the area of Hulme towards Manchester city centre.

These tunnels, plastered in graffiti, aren’t long but remind me of visiting London’s Elephant and Castle subway back in 2014. They’ve since ceased to exist, while these passageways show no signs of going away.

Even on a bright sunny day, this place feels desolate and unloved. There were just a handful of people making use of this vital connection and a few smashed booze bottles littering the area. It has a dark mood that’s absorbing to photograph, though I’m glad it wasn’t a dark night…

Manchester Metropolitan University's School of Business

This building, Manchester Metropolitan University’s School of Business, overlooks the concrete junction. With its sleek stripes of coloured glass, it’s a very modern contrast to the Mancunian Way, which was regarded as innovative and new back in 1967.

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Shoreditch streets

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Shoreditch

The London district of Shoreditch is just a stone’s throw away from the city’s business district. It’s become synonymous with being achingly trendy, packed with cool bars, shops and eateries. It’s the home of the Cereal Killer Cafe which serves nothing but a bewildering array of boxed breakfast delights. The demographic is young and hip, with beards and man buns a-plenty.

So I made the journey from staid west London to prowl the streets of Shoreditch with my camera. It’s urban with some rough edges and a lot of graffiti art, but has a lot of sumptuous little shops and places to eat. The vibrant facades and store fronts caught my eye, along with details of architecture. It was easy to capture people as they went about their business.

There’s a lot of see and absorb in a small area. I’d thoroughly recommend a photo walk – keep your eyes peeled.

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The Photo Shop

Filthy nature

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I walked out one morning in search of grunge. This quest took me to a stretch of London’s Grand Union Canal which is anything but pretty and quaint.

The stretch between Willesden Junction and Kensal Green in the city’s north-west straddles a major railway confluence. It’s heavily industrialised and nature has almost been squeezed out by the excesses of human activity.

Dilapidated warehouses line the banks, along with spray-painted walls and the occasional mound of rubbish. But the area is full of textures and shapes, oddly alluring to the camera. 

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The Photo Shop

Undercover art

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Authorised graffiti area

This is an alternative London tourist attraction, which you can find in a dank, badly-lit tunnel which snakes underneath Waterloo rail station.

The Leake Street tunnel is a place where spray paint art is permitted, and has a strong association with renowned street artist Banksy.

It’s plastered in a colourful explosion of graffiti and is living, breathing street art gallery. On the afternoon I ventured down there, several people were busy creating work with spray cans. The tunnel smarts with the tang of solvents and urine – not an environment for the delicate.

For the photographer, it’s a moody, atmospheric place with both light and shadows. You can create some vibrant abstract frames with the colours and textures that bleed off the walls, while it responds well to some HDR editing. This is quite literally the city’s underbelly.

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The Photo Shop

Inner city art

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Street corner graffiti

A splash of urban colour not far away from London’s business heartland. This is the Golden Lane area, an inner city community of housing and shops, a world away from the cut and thrust of the UK’s financial nerve centre.

This shutter, lowered over a commercial premises, is artfully decorated – it can barely be classed as graffiti and brings a flourish to the grey of the pavements and facades.

Step off the beaten path in London and you’ll find interesting details, worthy of being captured on camera.

Paintwork