Somehow between late 2009 and end 2011, between happy circumstance and a little bit of planning, I contrived to visit a series of European cities. Athens, Madrid, Liverpool, Brussels, Berlin, Hamburg, Koln… Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bucharest, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Inverness, Amsterdam, Krakow…
Perhaps not everybody’s choice of destinations, but each fascinating in their own way. As I’ve picked the images for these galleries, I’ve found myself considering the similarities and differences – there are country capitals, there are the second cities, there are the traditional places that tourists visit, and then there are the side streets and the unsung parts, the life going on around…
So the images are of old and new, of construction and of destruction, mess and order. I guess most cities are the same, visually different on the surface, but scratch the surface and below urban life rolls on as it does in all places. Beautiful and ugly, tidy and disordered, grand and small, the lonely and the connected.
One story: It’s midnight and the bartender is suddenly urging us to leave his bar. No payment, drink up, now. Now! We are aware of a commotion taking place outside and get up quickly and frantically slugging our drinks back and offering to pay, shuffle towards the door.This is Madrid at midnight and the start of a 24 hour general strike against Government cuts. All places to shut down or else. I follow the marchers around night time Madrid as they ensure their curfew, stickering shop fronts and advertising hoardings. The police stand by, calm, guiding but not confrontational and apart from spray paint and stickers and lost revenues not a lot of damage done.
Next day the marchers are out in force still policing compliance, marching and chanting round the inner boulevards stopping the traffic and making a lot of noise. The sun is shining, they and the police still in good humour, and businesses are closed. Later on I am back in the centre of Madrid, still six hours of enforced closure to go, the big shops are closed, but even marchers get thirsty and hungry and the bars are reopening. Traitors to the cause!
And no free tabs this evening.