Town Center

No, not a shot of a failed Mars Lander.

Abandoned carcass of a black and white valve TV set, possible early 1960s vintage. Photo approx 1976/7. Taken in St.Helens on some wasteland, possibly after some street demolition. This shot reminded me that I used to enjoy taking the backs off old TVs to poke around and see how they worked, surprised I’m still alive thinking about it now.

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St.Helens supermarket, late 1970s.

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Late 1970s image showing the corner of Cooper and (I think) Argyle street in St.Helens (since demolished).

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I have come to love this hopeless light, neglected and fading.

Two memories come to mind.

Ladies in their  older years always wearing scarfs over their heads, though I don’t think it was for religious reasons. Memory is of them hiding curlers or perhaps a bouffant protected from the wind.

A visit from the new manager of the bank when it was completed to the Cowley Sixth form. I cannot remember the purpose of the visit (perhaps recruit future staff?). I recall taking a very low view of the new bank, it seemed to me to be a way of extracting money from the local economy.

Decades later after many scandals and fraud it turned out that I may have had a point.

Waiting for the lights to change at the pedestrian crossing on Bickerstaffe Street, St.Helens approx 1975.

I was returning to the large building on the right which is the Gamble Institute and needed to finish the film I had been given at the photo department there.
I had been loaned a twin lens reflex camera and told to go for a walk and learn to use it. I would not have printed a frame like this at the time as I would have considered it “too ordinary”.  With the passage of time it becomes more and more interesting, the clothes, the attitude, the smoking, the lack of smart phones…

Some of the people noticed a shy 14 year old with a funny looking camera pointed at them and responded, as is natural.  With time I have realised that capturing the “ordinary” is one of the greatest of photography’s gifts

One of my earliest images, shot on a twin lens reflex camera borrowed from the photo department of the Gamble Institute in St.Helens.

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St.Helens Industrial area from the late 1980s

The St.Helens I remember from my youth. I was thirteen and a half when I took this (I have a very clear memory of taking this image).

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Family friend Connie Kelly outside her antiques shop at 164 Duke Street late 70s / early 80s.
St.Helens

The Fine Fare shopping bag would place this between 1974 and 1976 I think.
St.Helens.

Lubitel II tlr camera.
St.Helens

The film “Tommy” was released in March 1975 so I must have taken this picture at about the age of thirteen and a half. Standing in the middle of the road was a bit safer in those days. Lubitel II tlr camera.
St.Helens.

Some of the older industrial buildings for Pilkingtons Glass Works were still standing in the late 1970s.
St.Helens.

Heading to school through St.Helens town centre. Late 1970s. Camera: Lubitel II tlr.