Images on this site are available to purchase in mounts or as framed digital prints in most standard picture sizes. Please email sales@vauxhall-images.com or telephone Fineshot Photography on 01793 486732 for prices and further details.

If you are looking for more images of Liverpool in general and tenement flats or housing in particular, I would highly recommend you visit Ged Fagen's marvelous website http://www.inacityliving.piczo.com/?cr=7 Ged's site has many further links to other must-see sites with photographs of Liverpool.

I would like to acknowledge some of the photographers who's work inspired me as a student and who's influence can be seen both in terms of style and approach in the Vauxhall project.

The work of Thomas Annan - "The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow" (1868-1871), gave me the original idea to record the Vauxhall area at a time when so much of the tenement housing was destined to be pulled down. My "take" on simply mimicking Annan was that, unlike him, I lived there in the area so I could never really be totally dispassionate about the place in the way that he was about Glasgow.

From the outset though, I wanted the images that I made to portray a kind of "detachment" in keeping with the tradition of social documentary photography. However, having a bit of an "artistic inclination" led me at times to look for the unusual; objects, unexpected elements, angles, points of view and moments when something with a little bit of mystery could be witnessed and captured for posterity. This was in no small way as a result of an appreciation and fascination with the work of Eugene Atget (1857-1927).

I have always considered the 5x4 images (mainly in the "Architecture" gallery) to be the strongest and most important element of this project. The many constraints of working in this format; especially the essential requirement to find the absolute best position to place the tripod and camera, meant that at times I could only just about get everything in that I felt needed to be within the picture. When composing to the edges of the frame, I often had in mind the work of Walker Evans (1903-1975) and his ability to be so precise in the placement of all significant elements within the composition.

Some of the later projects; "Trees", "Scouse Shrines" and "Bricked-up Doors and Windows" did not go down very well with my tutors at college. Roger Taylor in particular pronounced these images as "Banal". At the time I must confess that I had no idea what that word meant but I soon got my dictionary and checked it out. Despite the setback that this remark engendured, I took heart from being introduced to the New Topographics movement through the work of visiting photographer Lewis Baltz  His images of industrial parks and new housing developments encouraged me to explore the open areas and "urban spaces" of the neighbourhood.

In my final year dissertation, I tried to write a history of "Social Documetary Arhitectural Photography" as I called it, and in it I wrote in detail about the work of all the influences mentioned above. In the opening paragraph, I say that the purpose of the essay was to put my work in a" historic context" and to establish and acknowledge the genre that I believed I worked within. Twenty-eight years later, I rediscovered this essay in an old box in my Garage. Reading it now, I can see why it only managed a 2.2 with it's pretentiousness; it's weak argument, lightweight references and glib quotations. I'm proud to say though that the body of images that I created as an undergrrduate were of a better quality than my written work. Hopefully, they will stand the test of time and prove useful to others in the future. I hope you enjoy viewing them and I would be delighted to receive your comments and feedback