Manchester Morning I

It’s some months ago now. I go into a cafe near Piccadilly Gardens. It's rush hour and I realise that I am putting off catching a crowded tram. I take my coffee and go to a stool next to the window. There's something about looking out that makes a few people gaze back. And it's different to the way they would look at people sitting at a table on the pavement. Perhaps it's the glass. It's as if you are part of a shop window display and there to be observed. I fish my camera out of my bag and take some pictures through the glass. The window is clean so the camera focus falls on the people outside. Most are unselfconscious, they hurry by oblivious to my lens. Their minds are elsewhere: "They say she's got six months. Six months!" or "I'm sure if I asked my brother he'd lend me the money. Even though I hate him. " The sun is still low in the sky and the shadows cast are pockets of emptiness. It reminds me of how the light falls between the tall buildings of central Glasgow or Manhattan. It is now after nine and the hours of our day will soon melt away. Who reckons the moments as they pass and who realises when one of them is captured in a photograph?


Camera: Yashica T5

Film: Fujifilm Neopan