Capturing the locked-down people of Levenshulme through their windows

'I'm not sure why but I have to fight off tears when I'm leafing through the pages'

Good morning members — if you missed yesterday’s story about the closure of cultural venues and the work of the Manchester Camerata, you can find it here.

Today’s post is about the first lockdown. Ciara Leeming is a great Manchester journalist who has written for The Guardian and won acclaim for her photo-journalism on the Roma community. She also worked for the very short-lived North West Enquirer in 2006 — the last major attempt to create a broadsheet newspaper in this neck of the woods.

Recently I noticed she was posting pictures she had taken of people during the first lockdown — photographed through their front windows. The photos are really interesting and powerful and they are now part of a book, so I asked her to write a short piece for us. One of her participants told her: “I'm not sure why but I have to fight off tears when I'm leafing through the pages… I find it very moving.” I can see what they mean.