Streets Around the World

Streets Around the World

A Few of Them

John Godfrey


USD 32,99

Format: 13.5 x 21.5 cm
Number of Pages: 118
ISBN: 978-3-99107-555-4
Release Date: 26.08.2021
One’s lifetime is not enough to cover the interesting life around streets. In this book, there are a collection of images from many streets across the world, each illustrating life around those streets. If you are interested in photography this is for you.
About the Author

My interest in photography started at a young age, when I was about ten years old. My father, who was a headmaster, had photography as a hobby. He used a box camera and a Kodak bellows folding camera which he carried in his coat pocket. The black and white film only took twelve exposures and had to be sent to a lab for processing. It could take up to four to six weeks before we could see the pictures in print.
I was born in Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon. Learning to use a camera was easy. The box camera did not have any settings except to set the shutter speed to ‘snap’ or ‘B’ for longer exposure. Loading a film was an art. My father loaded the films at night or tucked himself with the camera and film under a black blanket. The bellow Kodak was more ‘complicated!’ The shutter had to be cocked up for every take, the shutter speed, aperture and film speed in ASA, had to be manually set.
As I grew up and waiting for my GCSE result my father arranged for me to join a photographic studio owned by one of my uncles. There I learnt the use of a field camera using photographic plates, and a twin lens Rolleiflex for outdoor pictures. I worked in the dark room learning about developing films, printing enlarging, and about retouching final prints.
After a successful A/Level I was lucky enough to gain admission to the medical school in Colombo. I had to leave home. Years went by. Hard work was inevitable, and I had little time for hobbies. I could not afford a camera or the expenses of buying and developing films. After qualifying it was time to come to England for higher – level training.
The first luxury item I bought during my first job in England was a camera. A Canon AE. What a delight and I could now use colour films and see my prints in a few days! Apart from taking portraits, landscapes and holiday pictures I also took numerous clinical pictures many of which were published in medical journals.
Since those early years I have continuously upgraded my gear and I enjoy taking pictures, landscapes and street photography



Preface

“Deivam thantha veedu veethy iruku” are the first words of a Tamil film song written by the late Kannadasan, known to be one of the best poets and lyricists in India. This means “Home provided by God remain street”. This is true for millions of people in this world.
Steve McCurry, the well-known American photojournalist spent a lot of time in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He wrote:
In India in particular, where millions have no home but the streets, virtually every life event is carried out in public: praying, eating, cooking, sleeping, nursing and even crude dentistry.
Streets and roads are the silent heroes in the evolution and spread of civilization. It is streets and roads (hereafter mentioned only as streets) connecting villages to villages, towns to towns, cities to cities, countries to countries and continents to continents that were fundamental to these processes. Today most of our lives revolve round streets. The homes we live in, our workplace, shops, schools and universities, hospitals, are accessible only through streets.
If one sits down in a street in a town or a city and watches people walking, running, driving cars, taxis and buses, police officers in uniform, street vendors, and many more; one sees dogs, cats, birds and in some parts of this world; cattle, goats, donkeys and monkeys.
Recently there has been some talk about ‘rough sleepers’ in the cities of England. The number of rough sleepers has doubled during the past few years and there seems to be no coherent strategy or plan to deal with this problem. The government has promised no additional funds either. Life for these people can be hard, particularly during the cold winter months.
Life around streets is full of life and educational.
In this book, I have a collection of images from many streets across the world, each illustrating life around those streets. One’s lifetime is not enough to cover the interesting life around streets in this world. I have collected a few of them. I hope you enjoy and give some thought to these images.




STREETS OF LIVERPOOL

Liverpool is the fourth largest city in England, a cosmopolitan multi-cultural city.
The large part of the city’s wealth was based on maritime trading. Liverpool was the largest port in the British commonwealth. Ships sailed to and from the Americas, Africa, India and the Far East, transporting cotton, sugar machinery and other goods. Cunard was a well-known passenger liner operating from Liverpool to America. The RMS Titanic registry was in Liverpool. This connection of Liverpool to other continents through sea routes brought in immigrants from various countries. The Chinese community in Liverpool is the largest in Europe. Liverpool is also known for architecture. It boasts the largest collection of listed buildings outside London.
Liverpool is also known the world over for music. The Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is the oldest in the UK. Liverpool is the home of; The Beatles, Football, the Aintree Racecourse and two Cathedrals.
Liverpool was also involved in the slave trade and many relics
of the trade can still be seen in the city.


The Three Graces, on the banks of the river Mersey is a landmark which is rated as one of the finest buildings in the UK. UNESCO lists these as a world heritage site. They comprise the Liver building; the headquarters of Royal Liver insurance, the Cunard building, where Cunard and White Line companies operated, and the Customs House.

The waterfront and the surrounding streets have undergone much improvement and development in recent years.
This sculpture of an anchor, right at the entrance of the maritime museum stands above the new Liverpool museum and new modern office blocks and apartments.



Streets around Pier Head at Night

The night life in Liverpool is well known. After a quieter period around the 80’s and 90’s, life became livelier, perhaps because of the influx of a large number of university students. I happened to chat with a student from the Netherlands and I asked him why he chose Liverpool. “Creme” he said. Creme was then a famous night club.

I was about to take a picture of this person sitting on the pavement of Church Street, Liverpool, looking for some support. Two girls appeared, digging deep into their pockets giving away whatever they had. Charity begins not at home, but from your heart. It seems that there is no shortage of that in Liverpool.
More interesting was the lady exploring the bin, looking for something she had accidentally dropped or what, I wonder?


Cunard, whose headquarters were in Liverpool, celebrated its 175th anniversary in May 2015. The company’s famous liners; three Queens; Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary2 not only visited Liverpool but performed a ballet on the river Mersey. Thousands of people lined the pierhead to view the spectacle, many taking advantageous positions on walls, bicycles and balconies.

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