Tag: Gloomscapes

Manchester In Lockdown

I took a few pics of Manchester after lockdown while I was still going to work (I’m classed as a key worker).

Piccadilly Gardens:

Pigeons have now taken over the town (I’ve seen that happen before, albeit briefly), though I wonder how they’ll get fed, as with no people in town eating, there are no crumbs left for them.

Is there any better sign of the bleakness of the times we live in than a closed McDonald’s?

Market Street:

Written in chalk on the pavement:

Entrance to Arndale from Exchange Square.

Printworks–I’ve never seen it shut down in all the 17 years I’ve lived in Manchester.

Well, here’s your gloomscapes, the Universe whispers to which I respond: I did not want this! I only like it when it’s fictional! I only to like to imagine it!

I used to joke often about the upcoming end of the world, never did I imagine it would happen for real. In the future, we will talk about the before and after. Everyone will know someone who has lost someone to the virus.

How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

Bastille, Pompeii

The only way is to hope that the world will change for the better–and work towards it.

Old Trabant

This month marks 30 years since the end of Communist rule in Europe. Berlin Wall, that unmistakable symbol of the East/West divide, fell on the 9th November 1989. While scrolling on Twitter on the day of the anniversary, I came across this article by Ken Sweeney, where he calls Trabant cars “chariots of freedom”. What has a car got to do with the collapse of autocratic regime?

Well this. Trabants were manufactured in East Germany; I remember there were plenty of them in former Czechoslovakia. They were quite awful, a subject of ridicule and to this day bring back memories of those times. But, as Ken notes, they were also the vehicles that transported people from East Germany through the newly open border to the West. Thus, chariots of freedom.

Surprisingly, I happen to have some pics of them too.

This is from 2013 when I was visiting my family back home. Taken on a motorway, obviously, near or just out of Bratislava. Brother and me went on a short trip when we spotted it in front of us. Of course I had to take a pic. Looks like someone is a fan!

I never take pictures of cars, I never learnt to drive and I’m not interested in them but I never miss an opportunity for a good random or weird shot. Even long before I conceived the idea of Random and Weird Phone Shots.

There is also a model of Trabant displayed in Imperial War Museum in Salford Quays.

I just love how something so awful can decades later be thought of in any positive terms at all. I like a good redemption story.

They say a car needs to get you from A to B. For East Germans, that A and B were more than just places on a map.

Pigeon Takeover

More pigeons!

Last Friday (3rd May), Piccadilly Gardens, an area in Manchester city centre, got evacuated due to a suspicious package. The police and bomb disposal squad were called, did their thing, the device was not viable, nothing bad happened and the culprit was arrested. So what has this got to do with pigeons?

I went out on my lunch break to see what Piccadilly Gardens looked like when it was empty. It was empty of people, but not of all living creatures, as you can see on these shots.

This wasn’t more than half an hour after the evacuation. It’s amazing how fast they took over once people were gone. But that is more of a topic for my Gloomscapes series.

Some Statements in the City

Yes, I know I have already used a similar title. I like to keep a consistent theme on the blog.

These are some shots of, you couldn’t call it street art, but well, some interesting posters with political-type statements.

statements in the city1

statements in the city2

statements in the city3

statements in the city4

My favourite one is “the revolution will be cleaned by the council.” Because you know it will.

Hmm, I may just add this to Gloomscapes as a bonus post.

Gloomscapes #25

Welcome to Number Twenty-Five of Gloomscapes. This will be the last post for a while, as I’m taking a break from the series, to gather some new material and ideas for the future.

And it couldn’t be any other way than ending it with the very best–The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

nolite te bastardes carborundorum

And there it was, in tiny writing, quite fresh it seemed, scratched with a pin or maybe just a fingernail, in the corner where the darkest shadow fell: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

#KeepOnGloomin’

Don’t let the bastards grind you down.

Gloomscapes #24

And it’s Part Twenty-Four of Gloomscapes.

Current topic–Abandoned Council Project.

abandoned council project1

abandoned council project2

It wasn’t meant to end like this. The Council announced the project five years ago. This area had been abandoned for so long; nowhere else in the city needed this more than us. We will be working with the local community, they said. Park and lots of greenery, beneficial to people and wildlife, they said. A corridor to the heart of the city, they said. Future developments will lead to links to with north and east quarter, they said. It was more than a million they were investing… then nothing happened. Where did all that money go? They forgot about us… again.

abandoned council project3

#KeepOnGloomin’

Gloomscapes #23

Another Sunday, another Gloomscapes post.

More brutalistic architecture today; this time a canteen of an office building. I was thinking of the canteen in George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth in 1984, though that one was underground.

brutalistic canteen2

The lunch queue jerked slowly forward. The room was already very full and deafeningly noisy. From the grille at the counter the steam of stew came pouring forth, with a sour metallic smell which did not quite overcome the fumes of Victory Gin.

brutalistic canteen1

This was also the place where Winston and Julia arranged their first date, over spoonfuls of stew.

#KeepOnGloomin’

 

Gloomscapes #22

It’s the weekly Gloomscapes entry, number twenty-two. And it’s another graffiti tag shot.

ohdear streetart

Oh dear…

The three dots remind me of drops of blood. Maybe that was the artist’s (writer’s?) intention. I purposely didn’t crop out the CCTV sign. Because, you know, they are watching us…

#KeepOnGloomin’

I’m thinking of posting up to 25 and then take a break. New material is needed.

I’m just wondering, anyone out there who is a fan of dystopia/post-apocalypse and likes to take pictures too, how would you depict your favourite fiction in photographs? Have you ever tried it? Let me know in the comments.