Patrick Handley

Patrick Handley (1)
Patrick Handley (2)
Patrick Handley (3)

There was a time when Ancoats was all fields.

Later in its history the area played a key role in the Industrial Revolution. It is now struggling through a post-industrial identity crisis: some see it as a potential site for a trendy new suburb, I see Ancoats as an oxymoronic landscape of 'urban planning' and 'private wasteland'.

This project is born of a more general concern for the relationship between our economic system and its impact on our natural and social environment. The images seek to frame the visual contradictions that are largely unseen when a spectator's attention is encouraged only to focus on: a sympathetic new-build, a sensitive re-development, or the speculative acquisition of a disused building or an empty space.

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MMUManchester School of ArtManchester School of Architecture