Archive for the ‘Liverpool’ Category

In a smaller gallery next to the Art in Revolution: Liverpool 1911 is an exhibition of black and white photographs by Paul Trevor of inner city Liverpool taken in 1975.  The exhibition features a sequence of stunning images that reflect both the poverty and material decay that afflicted inner city life in the 1970s.  Most of the pictures feature children and amongst the battered landscape they add a sense of joy, hope, happiness and freedom.

Like you’ve Never Been Away is free and is at the Walker until 25th September and is well worth a visit if you’re passing.  An excellent way to spend a lunch hour if you work in Liverpool City Centre.

The Art in Revolution: Liverpool 1911 exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery celebrates the centenary of the 1911 exhibition of Post-Impressionist works and local avant-garde artists at the Bluecoat  (The Sandon Studios Society exhibition of Modern Art including work by the Post-Impressionists).  The breadth of styles is breath-taking – there are works by van Gogh, Gauguin  and Signac.   The art runs around the outside of the gallery its being shown in.

At the heart of the exhibition, literally and metaphorically, is a focus on events in Liverpool during the hot summer of 1911.  There were strikes; a peaceful protest on St George’s Plateau that turned ugly after police apparently overreacted to a minor incident with a baton charge to clear the area; troops stationed in the city; and H.M.S. Antrim stationed in the Mersey.  Black and white film of the disturbances plays in the foyer as you enter and then exhibits in the middle of the gallery, along with a timeline on one wall, place the revolutionary artwork in the context of the time it was being shown in.

A final, smaller room shows works that created in the years afterwards, how the art influenced other areas of design and photographic prints exhibited at the Walker in its 1911 exhibition.

The Liverpool Revolution 1911 is well worth a visit if you’re in Liverpool.  It runs till 25th September 2011 and entry is free.

I think this is the first time DarkDwarf and I have independantly taken photographs of the same thing for our blogs. Here is a shot of the Port of Liverpool Building reflected in Mann Island Development I took a couple of weeks ago but fell through the cracks of being busy doing other things.  Scarily we had almost the same title.

The golden dome on the Royal Insurance Building in Dale Street stands out on Liverpool’s skyline. 34m (110ft) above Street level is the highest point on the Grade II* listed building started in 1897 and finished in 1903. Sadly J Francis Doyle’s Edwardian Baroque building has been derelict for most of my time in Liverpool.

With the cold weather here’s another photograph from earlier in the year… a different view of Liverpool Resurgent over the entrance to the former Lewis’s Department Store.

Sunday night a thick fog descended on Liverpool. By Monday lunchtime it had lifted but I was still able to get some interesting photographs down on the waterfront at Lunchtime. I was surprised how many people were out with their cameras. Normally if I wander down there at lunch time there will be tourists about. There were a few Japanese tourists and a couple of school parties braving the December cold. There must have been a dozen or more locals out looking to get an iconic shot of the foggy waterfront. Here’s a wide angle shot of the Albert Dock from Strand Street. I’m hoping for a chance to get some shots in heavier fog sometime.

Just got back from Dragonmeet in London.  No snow here in Liverpool although saw a dusting on the fields on the way back.  I did find these icicles had formed on the back of one of my wheelie bins.  The longest one is almost a foot long!

How’s the weather where you are?

I’d gone down to the waterfront to take some photograph today and discovered the MPI Resolution was docked on the Mersey at the cruise liner terminal.  If a ship could ever be described as an impressive piece of kit this one has to be in the running to get that description.  The six towers are six jacking legs that allow it to raise the whole hull of the ship out of the water!  The large crane in the middle of the picture isn’t on the waterfront but also on the ship.  There is plenty of juicy technical information in the brochure on the owner’s website.  The MPI Resolution is currently operating out of Liverpool refitting turbines at Burbo Bank offshore wind farm, at the entrance to the River Mersey.

Over the last few days a giant column has risen from Chavasse Park in Liverpool One. Tonight the ride that goes up it swung into action for the first time. We can just hear the screams from our office. It seemed like a good subject for having a go at some night photography. This is probably not the best of the shots I took as the exposures a bit long but it had more of a sense of movement than the ones with less exposure.

I walked from work to Liverpool’s Anglican cathedral to see Laura Belém’s Temple of a Thousand Bells which is in the Oratory in St James’ Cemetary as part of the Liverpool Biennial 2010. The work consists of a thousand hand-blown glass bells suspended on nylon string through a gently glowing ceiling. An 8 minute polyphonic piece of music by Fernando Rocha including many different bell sounds fills the room. Really beautiful work. I just wish I’d had more than fifteen minutes to experience it.