The River That Changed The World
Photography Exhibition - Colin McPherson
Albert Dock, Liverpool
5.12.2007
Stifle your yawns and open your eyes, as this week, Liverpool's art and culture agenda has turned hectic. Monday saw the Empire Theatre play host to the Royal Variety Show; the winner of the Turner prize was announced on Monday and with the Queen and Dennis Hopper hanging about, it was publicity paradise. But if strolling bears and scaffolding turns you off, take your keen art-eye a few units down from the Tate to a little photographic exhibition that stands neatly beside its subject, the river Mersey.
There will be no more Liverpool-centric exhibitions here. Photographer Colin McPherson has taken his raw Scottish nerve and translated it into a portfolio of images that document one of the most influential expanses of water in the world.
His only direction for the project was to simply photograph the river: "As a photographer you're just very inquisitive and get to know your local area very well. I think being new to the area and having a fresh eye gave a sense of being a bit of an explorer, discovering hidden bits of the river. I let the camera just lead me."
After living in Merseyside for four years, Colin has become familiar with Liverpool's vibe and its recurring stereotypical connotations with the dock, the Beatles, and the Liver birds: "I knew there were certain icons along the river to be photographed, so I was interested in approaching those in a way which were not so obvious. I wanted to show them in their environment, rather that focusing on the icons themselves. I wanted to take a step back and look at what surrounds them."
The exhibition is being held in conjunction with the launch of a new book, The River that Changed the World, which covers the historical aspects of the river's industrial and economical expanse. Not only focusing on Liverpool, but the whole of the North West, the book's contributors include the late Tony Wilson, Lord Heseltine and journalist David Wood.
Leading the exhibition is Kate Fox, 29, who works as a project manager for the Mersey Basin Campaign. The organisation carries out regeneration for the river: " We're based in Manchester and, particularly at our end people associate it with Liverpool and not the whole of the North West. We want to get people throughout the region to appreciate the river." In light of this, the exhibition is a travelling one, and after Liverpool, will move onto Ellesmere Port in February, Sale during Easter, Manchester Science and Industry Museum, until finally finishing in Stockport.
The nature of an anti-static exhibition will undoubtedly call upon a mass of opinions, feedback and memories of the river. Each installation will have an area for visitors to contribute all of the above. Colin finds this particularly rewarding: "I'm looking forward to seeing how it's received in Manchester and Stockport, with the bias towards this [Liverpool] end of the river."
So, with Kate making a promise of "something for everyone" in both the book and the photographs, you can take a look on Tuesday at the Runcorn Bridge with a difference, or of two pecking cranes on the West Float in Wallasey, and decide whether the Mersey really is the river that changed the world.
