Last orders for oatcakes

A trip down to Stoke-on-Trent for the final opportunity to sample a tradition which was about to die, or, to put it more bluntly, to be killed off.

In the name progress, large swathes of the district of Hanley is being razed to the ground to allow for rebuilding and regeneration. And standing in the way of the all-conquering bulldozers are ordinary people with lives enriched by local customs and traditions, rooted in their communities.

One such institution was Hole in the Wall Oatcakes, the last traditional oatcake maker in Stoke. Serving delicious pancake-style comestibles from the window of a converted terraced house to grateful throngs of customers has been a way-of-life around there since the landscape was dominated by potteries and collieries. Now the industrial landscape has withered and changed. And in its wake, the houses and businesses which sustained the community are going too.

So, for one final time, hundreds came to queue in sun-drenched Stoke. One final chance to sample this little local delicacy. One final chance to say "hiya duck!" and get on with their days, well fed and satisfied.

To read the full story, go to http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/shutters-close-on-the-hole-in-the-wall-7584577.html?origin=internalSearch

To view a full selection of the images, go to http://colinmcpherson.photoshelter.com/gallery/Last-Oatcake-Shop-in-England/G0000NplJfW.pOZQ/

It was the way he told 'em...

Sad news the passing of legendary Northern Irish-born comedian Frank Carson albeit at the ripe old age of 85.

I had the pleasure of meeting him on an assignment for The Times in 2008 when I was shooting a feature about British comedians. We had an uproarious day in Blackpool with some of the greats. Frank was a cracker!

To see my day out, complete with candyfloss, kiss-me-quick hats and Jimmy Crankie, see the link below:

http://colinmcpherson.photoshelter.com/gallery/Stage-Screen/G00006kIK1wOrU9Q/P0000lwySMPQ6t2k

The Proof Principle opens to the public

The Proof Principle, my year-long commission responding to the one hundredth anniversary of research and development at Unilever's Port Sunlight laboratory, is now on public view.

The exhibition opened today at the Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool and remains open until Sunday, 11th March. Admittance is free and the centre, Liverpool's creative hub, has extended opening hours, a cafe, bar and restaurant.

See previous post for details of The Proof Principle. As a taster, BBC Online have featured the show on their England home page. A good way to launch the show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-17099408

The Proof Principle launches

The project which has taken up most of my creative energies in 2011 has finally launched, as a three part exhibition.

Entitled 'The Proof Principle' it is an artistic response to Unilever's celebration of one hundred years of research and development at the company's Port Sunlight facility in Wirral.

The commission was brokered by Arts and Business and followed on from me being part of a staff-curated group exhibition at Port Sunlight at the end of last year.

To celebrate the centenary, Unilever wished to engage an artist to commemorate this historic year. I was fortunate enough to be approached to take on the commission and have spent a fascinating year meeting, planning, photographing and filming at Port Sunlight. As a non-scientist, I was never made to feel like an intruder into a strange world, rather I enjoyed sharing the creative process of making the work with a whole host of friendly, welcoming, engaged and interested people. Also, the fact that I was allowed free-range to develop the project as I wished, was both challenging and stimulating.

The result is a three-part exhibition, featuring a series of photographic images interlinked with key words, an installation and a short film, which consisted of 'moving stills'.

The exhibition will remain at the facility until the New Year. It will then transfer to the Bluecoat in Liverpool in Spring on a date yet to be determined.

If you wish to read more about the project, view the images and see the film, please visit my website. Any comments may be left on this page. I'd be delighted to hear from you.

I'd like to thank Paul Sherratt, Mike Parkington, David Harrison and all the staff who assisted me at Unilever, Claire Barlow-Orton at Arts & Business and Jan Peters at USP Creative who turned the vision into reality.

Further information here: http://www.colinmcpherson.co.uk/gallery.asp?subject=TheProofPrinciple

Heading home....

My short residency in Kosice, Slovakia is at an end. I'm on my way home, delighted to have taken part in the exchange programme which allowed me access to the Getrag company in Kosice and, more importantly, to work with a talented and original photographer who played host to me during my stay and helped make everything run so smoothly. I am very much looking forward to Jaris' reciprcol visit to Liverpool the week after next and to working with him at the Getrag factory at Halewood and showing him around Merseyside. I'll post some images from the trip soon, but in the meantime why not take a look at Jaris' work, not only his stills photography, but his wonderful music videos.

To view work by Jaris, please visit www.jarisonline.net

Biela Noc, Kosice

Almost on cue, that song was playing in the taxi from the station to the hotel in Kosice. You know the one, the massive international hit which defined a moment and inspired a generation but was regarded as no more than a sing-along in England. No, not that Adele song that everyone belts out, but Wind of Change by Scorpions, the anthem which was accompanied by the crashing sound of the Berlin Wall tumbling down and eastern Europe turning from communism to fledgling capitalism almost overnight.

But while the tune endures, the sentiment is long gone. Countries such as Slovakia are unrecognisable from the early 1990s, when, in point of fact, the country didn't even exist. Now it nestles independently and proudly on the European Union's easternmost flank, a country on a seemingly upward trajectory, albeit a slow one (trajectory that is, not country).

Part of the renaissance has been down to aggressively attracting inward investment to utilise the educated skills and knowledge base which exists as a legacy of the old socialist system which prided itself in free education for all. And to add to this sense of place, a burgeoning cultural programme is being established, one which will see Kosice don the mantle of European Capital of Culture in 2013.

One notable event which already takes place, however, is White Night (or Biela Noc as they say around here), an annual arts event which last Saturday celebrated its 10th anniversary with a powerful and, well illuminating international programme of installations, performance and multimedia. The night attracted 30,000 visitors to the city centre, impressive for a city with an overall population of 220,000. I spent an evening soaking up the atmosphere feeling that I was part of something special. It was a privilege to be invited here to be part of it and interpret the event through my photography.

The wind of change continues to blow!

Arrival in Kosice

I'd forgotten about Shengen. Maybe it's because the UK is so paranoid about its borders, but as I sat expectantly in the railway carriage, passport clutched in my hand, nervous with anticipation of crossing a new frontier, I just assumed a large-hatted border guard would embark the train at one of the lightless, anonymous Hungarian halts and demand my papers. But no. My train passed softly into Slovakia and came to a stop some minutes later at my destination, Kosice.

Did I say a new frontier? Well, that's not strictly true. I had visited this part of the world before, however, the circumstances and the time of my stay means that it feels as if it belonged to a different age. Which, in a sense it did. Back then, as a 14-year-old on a family holiday, it was Czechoslovakia, a country very much in the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union, only a decade on from the Prague Spring of '68. Getting over the border then, in 1979, was an ordeal which lasted most of the day, as I recall. Visas endlessly checked, the car virtually ransacked and taken apart by zealous but sleepy border guards. Currency exchanged and tensions high before finally we were free to proceed into Bratislava until... the car's exhaust fell off. The next six hours of a somnolent Sunday was taken up with negotiating a temporary retreat and re-entry to the country. Strictly against the rules, but we had stumbled on a group of officials who, thankfully, took pity on our by now frantic family. And so it was that I entered Slovakia for the first time. And I've not been back, until now.

I am in Kosice as part of an exchange programme which is being established by the city's authorities here to allow photographers from Liverpool (European Capital of Culture in 2008, of course) and Kosice, which will have that honour in 2013 to visit each others city and make work. My brief is extensive for a one-week stay: photographing an automobile transmissions factory, producing a project with a local photographer, the enigmatically named Jaris, and documenting White Night, an annual event at which the city is illuminated by installations and performance by creative people from across Europe. And there's also the Kosice Peace Marathon, the longest-established European marathon taking place during my stay. So plenty to do and not much time to blog so far!

The photo shows the scene at platform six of Budapest's Keleti station, just prior to departure on the final leg of a journey that had started in a taxi at 3.30am and taken me via Amsterdam to Budapest and then on the train to Kosice.

For more information about Kosice 2013, please visit http://www.kosice2013.sk/en