There is a narrow window during which Simon Buckley likes to photograph his surroundings: the handful of minutes in which night becomes day and day becomes night. Dawn and dusk provide the backdrop to his ongoing Not Quite Light project, a study of transition in the environment around us, capturing the change of the old into the new. “The idea of the half-light,” he says, “translates into many ideas: those memories that aren’t quite full in our brains, dreams you only half-remember.”
On an August evening earlier this year, the Salford-based artist found himself sheltering from a downpour in central Manchester – “It was really bouncing off the pavements” – and was drawn to the beauty of the scene around him. Stepping out of the dry and on to the bridge overlooking Deansgate station, he managed to take five or six photos on his iPhone 6s before the water stopped his finger working on the screen.
He almost didn’t post the picture online – “rainy Manchester again” – but when he did it was an instant hit on social media, with Stephen Fry comparing it to the work of LS Lowry. “It must speak to something within us who live within the city,” says Buckley. “I think it appeals to the essence of what people believe Manchester is, despite it being a dynamic, changing city: strength, industrialism, forward-thinking, there’s always light in the dark – I think that’s a very Mancunian attitude.” Past and present coexist in the photograph. “Human beings pretty much carry on walking and behaving as they always did in rain: they stoop, they move fast. You can see the timeline between our Victorian selves and now – it’s not just the buildings that are there, it’s also the people. There’s no individual that you could identify: they’re all shapes and silhouettes, aren’t they?”
The image is available to buy as a limited edition print at notquitelight.com
