For the first time since the 6th March, face-to-face contact with actual University of Manchester students. And even then I should apparently not have been doing this. However, I’ve kinda stopped caring. I like this picture because it was just the shot I wanted to take when I pressed the shutter, and I got it on the first attempt. Mug, mask, maze of wires and all.
First trip to campus since March 8th, which as it was a Sunday, already had a desolate, end-of-the-world feel about it that the subsequent closure has cemented in place. On the few days over lockdown that I have visited, all of the city of Manchester has seemed like a coma patient. There is a certain amount of internal activity, things moving around from place to place, but there’s no real life or consciousness to it. This guy looks very much like he’s pondering his future and so should we all. Plants are doing well, though.
Infrastructurally, politically, the country moves inexorably to a state of meltdown, but hey, let’s at least enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.
Up and about again today, though not very far nor very energetically. This is the kind of vibe I am trying to affect at the moment.
2017-18 is my thirteenth academic year at the University of Manchester, meaning that today was the 39th opening day of a term there. Samuel Alexander has seen more than me, certainly as a bust in the foyer of his eponymous building: but according to his memorial he did 31 years as a functioning professor (of Philosophy) so I’ll catch him up in, er…. 2036.
It’s student video-making season: Sissi (bottom left) becomes the latest to come to my office and point a camera at me for sundry purposes. While she reviewed her footage, I became intrigued by her tripod. This is an inanimate object with a secret inner life if ever there was one. People go to certain clubs dressed like this.
She’s about to stand up, so this was my one chance to get this picture — hence, it’s fiercely cropped and could be a lot sharper. But…. I still kinda like it. You can’t really go wrong with rimlight like that.
I am here to work rather than just swan around visiting shrines, so here is a picture of that side of my life. We are trying to persuade Japanese potential students to come and study in Manchester — many of whom are vastly intelligent, fluent in English and would be obvious assets to the intellectual community, only you try telling this to certain elements in the reactionary press. Anyway, ignoring this aspect of our lives my colleague James, on the left, and his temporary client, seem happy enough as they discuss how to arrange this. I like this picture, it makes it feel like our presence here has a real positive point.
Although teaching term has restarted at Manchester, this guy still looked very much on his own in the corner of this particular campus café, and that’s what I was trying to capture.
Maybe I take too many candid photos of strangers but let’s look at it this way: 617 days into this blog and I’m trying not to repeat myself, take away the street portrait photography and there’d be even less to work with. I think this photo also encapsulates how nice it is to have this lovely slab of parkland right beside the QUT campus: who’d not feel like studying outside, in the continuing lovely weather here.
