Ahoy! Definitely not a Merseyside slang at all, not sure why I started with that word but back in April, I was in Liverpool with the sole purpose of visiting my beloved Anfield.
While I was there I had to do other things, seeing as I cannot be a weirdo and spend all my days in Liverpool at Anfield. I chanced upon Walker Art Gallery and was delighted to see there is actually an exhibit that interests me.
'Only In England' is an exhibition of the works of British photographer Tony Ray-Jones. Ray-Jones enjoy taking photographs of ordinary English life that has a good mix of quirkiness, humour and melancholy.
Perfect. Only very recently did I find myself taking photos of people in the places I visited instead of stunning architectural shots. It wasn't a conscious decision to do that. One day as I was browsing through my travel photos, I just realised I ended up with photos of a lot of people on the streets, sometimes without any photo of the place I was at! The next few times, I began to notice my instinct and found that I was drawn to people.
So the 'Only In England' exhibit inspired me to continue to explore photographing people. In conjunction with the exhibit, Walker Art Gallery was also holding an Instagram contest to showcase the unique character of Merseyside.
I was walking through St John's Gardens on my way to the exhibit when I came across a man on the bench looking absolutely knackered. There were nobody about and I hesitated for a while, having an internal debate if I should whip my camera out and take a photo of him. I decided I really should, in conjunction of my new aforementioned self-discovery and decided to use that photo for the contest.
I didn't win the contest, I really wanted to but looking at the winner's photo it was certainly a more appropriate and funny image! Still, I'm glad to be featured on the gallery's website as a shortlist and my photo may be up on display at the exhibit resource area! Can't say I'm not excited about that for it will be the first time my photo is appearing in a gallery :D Just wish I get to be there to see it up!