Made in Eccles
An exhibition of black and white photographs from a working class Eccles lad in the 1970s and 1980s, Martin O’Neill
24 January 2015 — 19 April 2015
‘I didn’t know I was working class when I was growing up. I didn’t even know there were such things as classes, come to think of it! I grew up in Eccles and didn’t think twice that all the houses were joined together in a row, or that hardly anybody had a car.. or that we never went away on holiday! Life was, in actual fact, sweet! Dad had a job, we all had loads of mates to play with and in 1971 I got a Chopper for my 11th birthday!
I still didn’t know I was working class when, in 1973, I joined our school camera club and began to photograph everything and anyone around me. Women donkey-stoning their front door steps, people smoking on the buses, kids ‘playing out’ on old mattresses dumped on scrap land and folk busy with their ‘Big Shop’ on Eccles ‘Outdoor’ Market on a Saturday morning. The chip shop, the diesel-engine factory, my cousin fixing a Fiat 127 outside his front door.. in his socks! What I saw, I photographed!!
Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to get all teary-eyed and start pining for the good old days because, although it’s true a lot of the factories and shops have gone, there are still jobs; there are still – of course! – shops and supermarkets, and some kids are still able to play outside their homes, but I suppose that nowadays the work place is more likely to be a sterile call centre, the Big Shop is done with the click of a mouse online and playing with your mates generally involves an internet connection and a very expensive computer game. Funny thing, though. One day these will be the ‘good old days’ for a lot of people, and though my ‘good old days’ have gone.. the pictures carry on!!’
Martin O’Neill, photographer.