Today brings a double dose of photos of Manchester places of worship with images of St. Ann’s Church and St. George’s Church.
The former is still a practicing church in the middle of downtown, while the latter, just outside the city centre, has been transformed into apartments when it fell into disuse (and I would love to see the interior renovation some time in case a resident of the apartments is reading this and would like to invite me around).
St. Ann’s Church:
St. George’s Church:
I have just put up a gallery of photos of one of the more unique buildings in Manchester, the Urbis exhibition hall. Interesting angles and curves abound, images of overhead clouds dance on the glass, and the imagination soars at being able to ski down that steeply-slanted roof.
My only potential qualm with it is that it seems a bit out of place surrounded by much older buildings. While a number of these have been updated (the Triangle Centre, formerly the Corn Exchange and now a mall and the Printworks, formerly a press building and now an entertainment centre) they haven’t reached the level of modernism of Urbis’ slope. And accross the way, Chetham’s school and the Cathedral must be wondering what this 21st-century structure must be doing in the same park as them.
But on second thought, that diversity is one of Manchester’s appealing qualities for me. I shouldn’t complain about old and new rubbing shoulders when I’m such a fan of both.
View the gallery here.
While I already have a number of photos available here of the exterior of the Manchester Town Hall, the building’s architectural wonders do not cease once you step inside. The first two floors of the building (at least the parts open to the public) make for a particularly good wander and I now have a gallery of photos of the interior to prove it.
A couple years ago, my wife brought two of her co-workers over to Manchester for a visit. They both worked in the city hall of the small city of Ichinoseki in northern Japan and they were blown away by Manchester’s building. I’m told they turned green with envy because the Ichinoseki city hall, well, it lacks some of the grandeur of Manchester’s municipal headquarters. Not that a Victorian Gothic building would make much sense in small-city Japan… Still, it’s nice when architects give the occupants of their buildings a treat.
A semi-hidden gem here in downtown Manchester is the Barton Arcade shopping mall. Tucked in between Deansgate and St. Ann’s Square, the arcade doesn’t show much of itself from the outside, especially on the Deansgate side. But once you step inside, it reveals a beautiful glass and iron roof that fills the hall with light.
It’s always nice to cut through here even just for a glimpse when walking in the area.
See the photos here.
I know it has been too long in putting these up, but here they are: a small batch of my first photos from Manchester. Believe me when I say I have a rather sizable bunch of photos still requiring processing and uploading.
Manchester is my new home and, in these first few months, it has been been good to me, photographically speaking. There’s plenty to explore here in terms of architecture and sights, the accessible countryside has plenty more to shoot and the number of events that make their way through here is formidable (the only limit is my cash and time!).
I wanted to be able to deliver a few relatively complete collections of photos before I started uploading, and while I could always shoot more shots of these fine sights, I now have a few solid and somewhat comprehensive collections of images to share.
Check out a few starter photos here and find lots more in the gallery:
Funeral for a Friend packed as many of its fans as possible into the Manchester Apollo last Friday and the crowd was more than happy to devour every note.
The opening act, Haunt, was fairly forgettable and few of the UK fans had heard of The Receiving End of Sirens (their album had only been released in the UK since last week despite being out for a couple years in North America), so when FFAF arrived, the crowd had a lot of stored-up energy left to release for the headliners.
They put on a well-performed set with plenty of energy movement and had plenty of fun with an appreciative crowd. The photos tell the story:
And a couple of the fans:
Last Friday at the Apollo Theatre in Manchester, The Receiving End of Sirens was one of two opening bands for Welsh post-hardcore rockers Funeral for a Friend. TREOS was the main draw for me – their album, Between the Heart and the Synapse, was one of my favourites in the last couple years.
I really enjoyed their performance, but I’m wishing I would have seen them a year ago when Casey Crescenzo (now in The Dear Hunter) was still in the lineup. The harmonies just aren’t quite as powerful as they could be with his vocal there to fill up the sound.
When TREOS start working on their next release, I do hope the loss of Crescenzo doesn’t hurt the band too much, but I suspect it might. After listening to The Dear Hunter, I have a feeling he was responsible for some of TREOS’ more experimental moments and I would hate to see those disappear from their music.
In any case, I still enjoyed the show and it was great to see the Apollo Theatre for the first time. Here are a few photos of TREOS’ set:
I had a couple of errands to run near Manchester’s Northern quarter today, and having heard about the morning’s fire, it seemed a good idea to bring my cameras along. The blaze had been extinguished, but there was still a lot of fuss in the area.
Here are the photos from the aftermath of Manchester’s April 30th, 2007 Dale Street fire. A few more are available on my flickr stream.
Whew…
For the last eight working days, a big part of my job has been the lifting of heavy gym equipment up and down stairs to a studio owned by Manchester’s Photolink Creative Group. I’m pretty sure, however, that the gym equipment was meant to get you in shape in an entirely different way. I think the treadmills expect you to run on them, not just carry them up and down stairs. The exercise bikes have seats on them for a reason. The handles on the elliptical trainers aren’t just for getting a handhold while lifting them.
At the same time, I think this regimen of junior power lifting must be doing my body some good (as long as I don’t suffer a hernia). I mean, I can’t have this much muscle pain without it being good for me, right? Soon I’ll be able to toss these exercise machines up to the second story without breaking a sweat.
As much as I might sound like I’m complaining here, that’s not the case. I’m pretty lucky to have the opportunity to work in the field I love and with some talented people happy to share knowledge with me. And if I happen to build up some muscles along the way, that’s not bad either!
As promised in the previous post, here is the second half of the show played by These Arms Are Snakes and Pelican.
I wasn’t sure how Pelican’s long, instrumental post-metal compositions would translate to the live environment, but I was pleasantly surprised. The massive, dense songs made me think this is what whales would listen to (if whales liked to rock).
And of course the photos:
