As I wandered into a local shop for some random item today, looked over and had a quick peek at the newspapers which had faces of the celebs in there. Saw Kerry in there (a fellow Warringtonian) and on the opposite side Lucien Laviscount.
Photographed Lucien recently,
He is a really nice guy from first walking on set, we just got on with making photo's straight away, he is easy to work with and open to ideas, a combination that makes for a quick and productive shoot, which it was.
He comes accross older than his years but that's confidence and experience for you.
Not sure how long Celeb BB is going to be this year but I wish him well, sure the British public will love him.
In the afternoon of Tuesday 9th August 2011 I was out of Manchester and knew I would be heading back into the city around rush hour.
Trouble in Manchester was expected, and it was soon to be a long evening, rioting and looting in Salford has already started.
There was an option to stay out of the city but I decided to return home, I had a gut feeling.
As I got closer various text messages came through from friends one who had a businesses in the Northern Quarter, this area is a hive of small businesses and bars, it is just one minute from Picadilly gardens in the city centre.
I took a walk over to make sure my friend was ok, as I got closer their was something bad in the air, it was still quite warm but the mood was much more serious, unless you have been in this situation it is a strange feeling and hard to explain, easy to say it felt like something was going to happen, the reality was the destruction and looting had already started in the city centre.
As I turned into Picadilly gardens the scene was one that made me stop, a lot of people were gathered hanging around or moving in large groups, in total there were many hundreds media has quoted upto 2,000 people.
Picadilly gardens was the area everything seemed to stem from.
Hundreds of looters raid one shop, relentlessly.(iphone)
Police held Market street from early on, had they not it would of been a scene of complete destruction, instead the rioters and looters that had already attacked Miss Selfridges and set it on fire then turned to other shops in and around the area.
On each occasion as the Police closed in they moved through the maze of side streets to another location, the Police were over stretching themselves which led to some nasty confrontations but I did not see any Police hurt.
The gangs move on as the police move in.(iphone)
An innoncent young man got caught up in a rush at and was stuck by a police batton, he was in a very bad way, motionless on the floor.
It was too dangerous to capture footage at this time, a photographer who I met at this time I moved around with, Alan was a young guy who had been physically attacked twice with looters trying to steal his camera from him, I decided to cover him while he was getting his photo's. we just moved where the crowds went to next.
A car is set on fire.(iphone)
The footage you can see at the link below shows the devastation to shops and business in this area. I wanted to capture the devastation but it was far to dangerious to try and do this as it happened as close as I wanted to be.
To get this footage and photographs I ventured out alone, which in all honesty was not a good idea, the smaller groups seemed worse but it's done now.. I worked smart and moved fast... I was lucky to get what I did and be ok.
Watch my video Aftermath, more photographs showing the damage and looting(Canon 5dMK2).
