Liverpool Docklands

In its prime, Liverpool was one of the busiest ports in the world, handling massive amounts of cargo, from 18,800 tons in 1715 to a staggering 12.4 million tons by the early 1900s

In 1988 however, walking between Regent Road and Vauxhall Road from Bootle to Liverpool, the evidence of deterioration was spread far and wide. What was once a proud and thriving community was now an acropolis of gutted and crumbling buildings which had outlived their purpose. I concerned myself with those who still inhabited this landscape, capturing the humanity of those left behind to pick through the last remnants of a proud history of working class existence.

At the same time, changes were creeping in at the Albert Dock. Tate Liverpool opened, luxury flats went up, and Richard and Judy were being launched on an unsuspecting public. What had once been the stomping ground of the working classes was being reinvented as the playground of the middle classes, all are welcome, as long as you can afford the entrance fee.

Commissioned by Open Eye, Liverpool and exhibited in the gallery in April/May 1988