Blast from the past part II

This image formed part of a series of photographs about Stoke on Trent taken in 1996 but i think the image could represent many streets in any number of towns in the UK.

The photograph was part of a collection of images that looked at the diverse landscape of the five towns that made up Stoke on Trent. The previous canal image was part of that collection too, documenting the dark industrial landscape of the pottery town.

I always thought that the midlands and the north east ( where i have family) were pretty similar when it came to economic and social problems caused by the loss of industry. These images of Stoke were really a continuation of a post industrial project started in Middlesbrough in 1991. Some of the North East images will be posted in the coming months.

The dark clouds were something i always liked and the influence comes from the b&w 1940's films that often had great skyscapes. Stoke usually had quite interesting skies anyway and combining the moody sky with the dark landscape always seemed to work well.