THE MANCHESTER PROJECT: KNOCK THEM DOWN

Originally started back in 1999 ‘The Manchester Project‘ is photographer Mark Page’s ongoing personal portrait of a Northern English post-industrial city.
It seems to me that the story of these images is a commentary on the gap between what we’re told to be and what we are – particularly looking at those huge numbers of Mancunians whose social norms are undermined in the public facing presentation of the city – real people ignored for not fitting in to a gentrified vision of the city.
Its in this gap, between the aspirational marketing of corporate hegemony that Manchester has eagerly embraced and the reality of a Britain that ended up been forgotten in the recently passed boom years, that Page’s work always skilfully shines a light and starts to take on importance beyond the boundaries of the M60.

Andy Brydon CURATED PLACE 2010

Saturday, May 5, 2012