Inside HM Prison Manchester and Look2011
18th March 2011
I finally made it to the other side and I am not even a man - not at least the last time I looked. After an endless going back and forth and cancelling of meetings, one trial shoot, and the governor Richard Vince posing for me in a prison cell, I have been allowed inside HM Prison Manchester, formerly known as Strangeways,to document its workings, staff, and prisoners who were willing.
This is a delicate project built on trust, and follows in the wake of a TV documentary to come up in the coming months. It is the first time that a photographer or camera crew have been allowed inside this prison since the 1990 riots. A lot has changed since then in a very positive way, and for my part I intend to document it honestly, and not in a grim trying to dish the dirt way. There is a lot of good to say, or show in my case.
On the basis of this ethos, I have been given permission for an exhibition using some of the images which will be on view at the end of April in the Baltic Triangle in relation to the Look 20111 Liverpool International Festival of Photography. For the moment I am concentrating on the staff, but do not expect bland corporate portraits! Hopefully in time to come I will be able to reveal the still documentary I am recording to more public eyes and posterity. I will post more details as I know them.
Officer Alan Blocksidge, Butler Trust winner and MBE for his work rehabilitating drug addicts within HM Prison Manchester
This is a delicate project built on trust, and follows in the wake of a TV documentary to come up in the coming months. It is the first time that a photographer or camera crew have been allowed inside this prison since the 1990 riots. A lot has changed since then in a very positive way, and for my part I intend to document it honestly, and not in a grim trying to dish the dirt way. There is a lot of good to say, or show in my case.
On the basis of this ethos, I have been given permission for an exhibition using some of the images which will be on view at the end of April in the Baltic Triangle in relation to the Look 20111 Liverpool International Festival of Photography. For the moment I am concentrating on the staff, but do not expect bland corporate portraits! Hopefully in time to come I will be able to reveal the still documentary I am recording to more public eyes and posterity. I will post more details as I know them.
Officer Alan Blocksidge, Butler Trust winner and MBE for his work rehabilitating drug addicts within HM Prison Manchester
