‘Mr Turner’ in his doorway in Ordsall, Salford, 1977 (Image- Phil Portus)
In 1977, Phil Portus photographed life on the streets of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. A member of the Reflex photography group, led by documentarian Diane Bush, a young American established documentary photographer, Portus wanted to show the everyday things people living there did and saw. He looked at urban change and the effect on the local population in the Langworthy, Ordsall and the Adelphi areas.
We see pubs, the street, and images of the bleak demolition sites of the former thriving Victorian workers’ terrace houses. His favourite is the picture at the top of this page of Joe Hunter in the doorway of his lifetime home in Ordsall surrounded by boarded and bricked-up houses waiting to be demolished. In his window he had put a handwritten sign: ‘This House is Occupied.’
Dinking stout in the Bricklayer’s Ams, Ordsall
The above picture shows Salford Docks (also called Manchester Docks), opened by Queen Victoria in 1894, providing docks in Manchester and Salford for the Manchester Ship Canal which linked Manchester to the sea. During the 1970s, the docks fell into decline as they proved too small for new, larger ships, and when they were abandoned in 1982 over 3,000 people lost their jobs.
Salford City Council purchased the docks in 1984 and since then they underwent regeneration as a centre of tourism in Salford, which included the construction of the Lowry Centre. More than 10,000 people are employed in the Quays in jobs such as retail, construction, and e-commerce. In 2011, the BBC moved five of its departments to a new development on Pier 9 of Salford Quays, called MediaCityUK.
The Paddock, Langworthy
Reunions
In 1978 the Reflex group had a group exhibition held in the Salford Players Theatre on Liverpool Road. Now, decades later, Portus has tracked down some of his subjects, photographing them again in the 21st century, more than 45 years after he first met them.
He wrote to local newspapers the Salford Reporter and the Manchester Evening News, asking for people he’d photographed in 1977 to get in touch. They did. An exhibition at the Langworthy Cornerstone Community Centre showed some of the more recent up to date photographs taken of children 47 years ago next to their 1977 images with some stories.
Michelle Darby and Sandra Obuku in 1977 (Image- Phil Portus)
Michelle Darby and Sandra Obuku
Phil told the MEN: “Three lads in 1977 by council flats on Eccles New Road shouted to me if I would take their picture – one quick shot with my 35mm film camera – unlike today when I would have taken several shots in digital format.”
Stephen Lord, John Howells, and Anthony Lord at Langworthy flats in 1977pictured in 1977
Stephen Lord, John Howells, and Anthony Lord decades later
Via: RPS, and the brilliant Cafe Royal Books, which has zines of Phil’s work to buy.
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