Manchester buildings
Hello and welcome
This article is an experiment.
It was originally supposed to be a slide show for my black and white images, but it turned into something more: It turned into an exploration of the transition from monochrome to colour and also from the still image to the moving image. It's a theme I need to develop further. All the photos and articleclips are take from my Manchester and Salford archive, plus a few taken at the weekend
So let's go to our first location, on a hill top to the east of Manchester Not so long ago we saw the world in black and white. Monochrome images make us think of the old Manchester. In the past we shot mostly still images on mostly black and white film. Using today's technology, we can shoot still and moving colour digital images that can be made monochrome, like the one on screen. A static article or cinemagraph is a still image with limited movement. When parts of a monochrome image are in colour, that's colour-popping. And so a theme of this article is the transition from still to moving and from monochrome to colour. The earlier images are all monochrome.
In the later images colour breaks through so please watch to the end. And watch out for the cinemagraphs or static articles. At first, they look like still images but then there is movement. This image was genuinely shot on black and white film. But not this one. At heritage railways like the East Lancs, the past is preserved, but it may not be quite accurate. The old engines were a lot dirtier, oilier and smellier, I seem to remember. Some structures have remained the same for decades.
Others have been adapted to new uses. One of these photos is film and one is digital. Which one? And what about this one? Through black and white, we can recapture the atmosphere of classic buildings, like the Apollo, built in the 1930s. New buildings, like the Civil Justice Centre, can be made to look classic too. At roof level Manchester has many striking architectural towers. With modern elements at street level excluded, we get a feeling of the past. But we mustn't forget, most buildings in the classic era were smoke-blackened. The beautiful architectural details were hidden.
Many industrial buildings have disappeared, to be replaced by new buildings. Can you guess when this one was built? Everywhere in post-modern, post-industrial Manchester, there are relics of the industrial revolution. With a bit of imagination, we can slip back into that time. Keep watching to the see the colours start to come through. I always thought this image would make a great postage stamp. The scene can't be photographed today, as the view is blocked. The Express Building - radical, progressive, enlightened, forward-looking - unlike the paper - was built in 1939. I'll be taking more and more static articles or cinemagraphs and experimenting with colour. Please keep visiting the AVZINE channel and don't forget to like, subscribe and comment and why not come on one of my photo walks? Details in the description, so. Vielen Dank und auf Wiedersehen!..