LOCATION, ABSTRACT ARCHITECTURE +
URBAN LIFESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY
FOR MANCHESTER BUILDING SOCIETY

A DREAM COMMISSION FOR A MANCHESTER-BASED FREELANCE COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHER WHO LIKES TO EXPLORE! CREATIVE AGENCY SERGEANT WALNUTS ASKED ME TO CREATE A BANK OF PHOTOGRAPHY FROM ALL OVER MANCHESTER AND ITS SURROUNDING BOROUGHS, FOR THEIR REBRAND OF MANCHESTER BUILDING SOCIETY.

QUOTE FROM RICHARD ATTWATER, CO-FOUNDER + MANAGING DIRECTOR AT SERGEANT WALNUTS

"The relaunch, and rebrand, for Manchester Building Society centred around the idea that they’re here for the entirety of Greater Manchester. They want to work with, and support, communities from all of the 10 boroughs - all of which are important and have their own rich histories. Our brand identity ensured that everyone feels represented and considered, and we wanted that to shine through in the bank of brand photography we commissioned. Steve showed an immediate understanding of the brief, and captured a truly unique perspective of Greater Manchester that demonstrates the brand's commitment to, and understanding of, the area.”

THE BRIEF

I've been working on this project for Manchester Building Society for the best part of 2025, building a bank of location and abstract architecture photography that represents all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester.

Avoiding tired and obvious clichés, this wasn’t about capturing the obvious and expected visions of Manchester – more about reflecting Manchester back to itself. Part of my brief was to capture images that will likely only be recognised by people who know the area intimately – ie. the locals – so odd glimpses of landmarks, unlikely or oblique angles and lesser known hidden gems.

An additional element was added to the brief at a later stage, to feature people and faces in the locations we would be photographing. I hope to share these once the campaign has launched, along with the final images that the client will be using.

THE PROCESS

I'll say it again... The brief that Sergeant Walnuts presented to me was so exciting. I would need to travel to and explore each of the ten Manchester boroughs and capture interesting and unexpected location and architectural photography that demonstrates a deeper understanding and recognition of what the region has to offer.

With my experience as a placemaking photographer (as well as a brand and marketing photographer) I immediately started to build ideas of how I would be able to respond to the brief.

One of the key aspects of location and urban lifestyle photography projects like this is the planning and preparation. I worked closely with the guys at Sergeant Walnuts to develop a plan and structure for how to approach this huge task. Manchester Building Society wants to become known as the building society that knows the city, and the people within it, better than anyone. As such, one of the first discussion points had to be about our wonderfully unpredictable Manchester weather. The photography shouldn't shy away from the challenges that the weather might bring. Sure, bright and sunny days will look great but cold, grey and wet days are part of our reality.

The next stage of planning was to decide on which boroughs to tackle first and then what order we work our way through them. The first location photography shoot was Wigan – back in January 2025. We worked together on the desk research to build a list of potential sites or locations to visit but we also allowed plenty of wiggle room in the shoots to find the unexpected and unanticipated gems.

RESPONSE

I would include the well-known landmarks of each borough, but try and capture them in a less obvious or abstract style. Offer hints, glimpses, crops, textures and colours, but try and mask the obvious qualities. Almost like playing a game with the audience, to see if they can recognise their home city, town or village.

Visiting the locations enabled me to engage with some of the locals who showed an interest in why I was there and what I was doing, and this would often lead to them sharing more local insights or lesser-known hidden gems that I should add to my shot list.

Between January and July 2025 I worked my way around all ten of the Greater Manchester boroughs, often visiting each borough more than once to capture urban lifestyle, location and street photography at different times of day, in different seasons and naturally, in different weather conditions.

Professionally, this has been one of the most rewarding projects I have worked on. It gave me the opportunity to draw on several of my strengths – as an architecture and location photographer, an observational street photographer, a landscape photographer (wow – those views in the hills around Oldham!) and an urban lifestyle photographer. (My project management background also helped in keeping myself organised and on track!) Looking for different ways to portray a city or place is what I love to do. After a while of walking around and looking closely at my surroundings, something will catch my eye. Then it almost feels like I'm documenting a story, and that drives the images. 

But also personally, this has been such a wonderful and eye-opening project to be a part of. I've seen and learned more about each and every part of Greater Manchester through creating this work and met some beautiful people along the way. I also now have a great list of stunning locations for future dog walks!

As this has been such a huge project, shot over the best part of seven months, there are a LOT of photos that I'm excited to share. But I can't post them all just yet. So expect future posts here on my site – and of course I'll be drip-feeding them on socials.