Articles Archive

I was asked where is the best part of Berlin to visit on a three hour bike ride. I came up with this short tour ...
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I've always been fascinated by local history. I love to imagine how things were in different times, whether during my childhood or 100 or more ...
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My earliest memory of U2 is from 1978 when they played at a 24 hour music festival at the Project Arts Centre, which had recently ...
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Saint Aidan was an Irish monk and missionary who helped to bring Christianity back to Northumbria in the north-east of England in the seventh century ...
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This is a review of "My Guide to Manchester", the complete guide to the city, written by tour guide and author Jonathan Schofield, published in ...
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Rebuilding Manchester was written by Euan Kellie. It’s a full colour, hardback edition with 255 pages, 467 images and graphics, of which 384 are photographs ...
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From 1999 to 2002 Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens were completely remodelled in a stark Modernist style with an office building constructed on green space at the ...
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A POWERFUL VISIONARY QUALITY that transforms the way we see familiar objects and places - That's the hallmark of many great artists, and one that ...
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In the aidan.co.uk PhotoGuide website I bring together all my interests and experience and one of the most important is education. I've been involved in ...
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I got to know Alex McCann when I was one of the official photographers at Manchester's In The City music convention and festival. He produced ...
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In 2006 I interviewed film and music historian C P Lee at his home in Manchester. On the occasion of his retirement on 30 January ...
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I love the effect of dusk light, when street lights, buildings are cast into shadow and appear silhouetted against the sky. In the urban landscape ...
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Manchester Then and Now is a book written by Jonathan Schofield presenting archive images of Manchester placed side by side with contemporary scenes - captured ...
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In June 2007 Tony Wilson interviewed Adele Loch Arlene McCarthy and me at the Cornerhouse Manchester. It was on a BBC Radio Manchester programme called ...
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The home of renowned author Elizabeth Gaskell reopened to the public on 5 October 2014. The Victorian villa at number 84, Plymouth Grove was built ...
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I asked my Mancunian friend Chris Joyce to recommend some places in Manchester for my English language students to visit. He came up with some ...
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Library Walk used to be of my favourite locations in Manchester. It was a haven of peace from the noise of the city, an architectural ...
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This is my illustration of a 1950s oval window VW Beetle next to the beach and the Promenade in Blackpool. I'm known for my photography ...
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Audio Part One: Introduction by Aidan O'Rourke 'Unbelievable' by EMF is one of the iconic songs of the Madchester scene, the music and dance movement ...
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This article, accompanied by photos from my archive, was featured in the Manchester Evening News in late March 2015. The Rhine, the Rhone, the Danube, ...
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In the Manchester area, Tatton Hall, Bramall Hall, Lyme Hall and Heaton Hall are the most famous local mansions or houses that were once the ...
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Whitworth Street West is a street that's associated with the field of media, culture and nightlife. It runs between two historic transport routes: the Rochdale ...
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One of the biggest influences on me was a neighbour who was also a school friend. He was into pop art and illustration. One day ...
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Soundcloud audio read by Aidan O'Rourke, including an interview with John McCormack. Press the 'Play' button, listen and read the article below. Charlie's Plan is ...
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This article was one of my weekly editorial pieces in the Manchester Evening News. The Manchester town hall clock tower tour offers a unique opportunity ...
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It might seem a bit egotistical, but I thought I would note down some of the things I've done that I'm proud of. I think ...
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ALL fm group show: The Tuesday Club with Heather Madden and Aidan O'Rourke by Aidan O'Rourke on Mixcloud Today we recorded the second show following ...
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Here's my interview on Radio Manchester on the morning of Wednesday 10th of June 2015. The transcript is below. Due to a technical problem with ...
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Here are a few of the photos I took this afternoon of the Manchester Day parade as it passed down Deansgate. It was a wonderful ...
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The Train to Funky Island is my ‘against all odds’ film project, made between 2010 and 2013, and here are the reasons why you should ...
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As a followup to her recent Stripped Back exhibition and launch evening, I visited photographer and artist Karen McBride at her apartment and studio. She ...
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Manchester has been called the ‘shock city’, where the future arrives early, and this is reflected in some of its buildings. When Urbis was under ...
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Few places symbolise the true character and spirit of Manchester more than Ancoats Dispensary. It’s not a stately home or a concert hall or a ...
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Oxford Road begins at the River Medlock under the rail bridge and extends to Moss Lane East by the Curry Mile. Oxford Road and the ...
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This article appeared in the Manchester Evening News in August 2015 There are some buildings people love to hate. I've listened politely to many opinions ...
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In August 2015 I was asked to lead a photography workshop for bloggers to be held in Manchester. It organised by the 3 mobile phone ...
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In December 2014 my late evening train from Liverpool was delayed. It stopped just beyond the platform at Lime Street. It was just a minor ...
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Bill Rogers captures the darker side of Manchester in his crime novels. We met at the Portico Library and he told me about the inspiration ...
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Street names can tell us a lot about the heritage of a place. Unfortunately most street signs in Manchester and the rest of the UK ...
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One day in November 2015 I had an appointment on Bury New Road and I took a short cut across the Greengate district of Salford ...
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As I post this image, it's the middle of winter in December 2015 but there's been no snow yet! I decided to pick a featured ...
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Earlier this year I featured Shaun Keefe who has developed a highly individual style of art. It's guitar art or guitart for short. He takes ...
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The celebrated photographer Anton Corbijn has announced that he is ‘bowing out’ of professional photography. From now on, photography will be just a hobby. This ...
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Here's my article and photos published in the Manchester Evening News on Thursday 10 December, 2015. During the previous days, record amounts of rain fell ...
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Here's my feature on forgotten bridges which have been uncovered and restored or will soon be. I've always been fascinated by bridges. They have an ...
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This article appeared in the Manchester Evening News in late November 2015 and is on the subject of new squares in the city centre. It's ...
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Here's my editorial and photos that appeared in the Manchester Evening News on Thursday 17 September 2015. Recently I've been tutoring at a company in ...
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Over a period of many years, London Road Fire Station has been without doubt Manchester’s most magnificent disused building. Every day, thousands of people pass ...
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This article appeared in the Manchester Evening News in late 2015, along with a selection of photographs. I've been following the development of Ancoats, Manchester ...
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Lime St Station is probably the best known and most used building in Liverpool. People from the suburbs and beyond take the train to Lime ...
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This article appeared in the Manchester Evening News that appeared on New Year's Eve, Thursday 31 Dec 2015. In the first line I made a ...
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Here's my editorial and photo feature on Oldham Road that appeared in the Manchester Evening News on Thursday 7 January, 2016. It was the first ...
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This article appeared in the Manchester Evening News dated Thursday 14th of January, 2016. I have always loved rooftop views whether in Paris, Berlin or ...
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I’ve always been fascinated by the Dublin suburb of Rathmines. To English ears it’s a strange-sounding name. There are no coal mines in Rathmines, the ...
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First of all, let me get one thing straight: The name of Manchester's main dual carriageway south out of Manchester city centre, the A5103, is ...
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This article appeared in the Manchester Evening News on Friday 12 February 2016. Many movies have been made in the Manchester area but few are ...
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The changing face of the city has been a dominant theme in my photography since the early days. It was fitting therefore that I was ...
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On a walk by the Mersey on 28 Dec I unexpectedly got two very interesting twilight views down the river, with the lights of the ...
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Here are some photographic impressions of a new symbol of Dublin, the Samuel Beckett Bridge. The bridge exists to provide a link between the newly ...
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1) You need to use Manual mode all the time.2) You must always shoot RAW. 3) White balance should always be set manually. 4) Only ...
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At last! Finally! After all these years of documenting Manchester in photos and words, highlighting, writing, campaigning, I have finally gained some recognition! On Thursday ...
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One of the themes of the Eyewitness blog is 'secrets behind the image'. In this post I am going to write about the creative and ...
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There are few things more important in our lives than buildings. New buildings, old buildings, they make our world, they are a reflection of us ...
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Following criticisms of the 2016 proposals, a redesign was produced in mid-2017 by Hodder Architects. Read my initial reactions in this article. After the police ...
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 What's Stockport famous for? It's the last stop on the West Coast line from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, it's seven miles south east of ...
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They incorrectly call Manchester the city of rain, but I think it should be called City of Libraries, as there four major historic libraries in ...
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This is the first in a series of video slide show presentations on the theme of 'Before & After'. From my archive, I have selected ...
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Kraftwerk are a contradiction. They use synthesisers and computers yet their music is full of expressiveness. They deal with complex themes of modernity and technology, ...
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As I understand it, one of the aims of the MIF is to stretch artistic boundaries, to encourage people, both performers and audiences, to move ...
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The red brick arched doorway and facade of Salford Lads Club has been seen countless times in a set of black and white photographs of ...
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Queer Noise is an exhibition at Manchester’s Pump House Museum about the development of the LGBT+ club and music scene mainly from the seventies and ...
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If you’re visiting a city and want to get the inside story on its history and attractions, who should you go to? A tour guide ...
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Music and architecture are connected. When I hear some genres of music I think of architecture, cityscapes and streetscapes. Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin ...
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I took this photograph of the Bata Building in Prague on a visit to the city in 2005. The images is dated 26.10.2005. I was ...
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Snow arrived in Manchester on the morning of Tuesday 27 February 2018. This was the first appearance of the 'Beast from the East' forecast to ...
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BRÜCKEN DES FLUSSES LIFFEY ENGLISCHE VERSION 1. Die West Link Brücke - Droichead an Nascbhóthair Thiar - führt die Autobahn M50 über den Fluss Liffey ...
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DUBLIN LIFFEY BRIDGES GERMAN VERSION Hello, my name's Aidan O'Rourke and in this video we're going to look at the bridges over the River Liffey ...
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Jon Parker-Lee has been active as a photographer in Manchester since 1993. An exhibition in November/December 2013 at the basement venue 2022 in Manchester's Northern ...
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 I made my Back to Film video (above) in 2018 in response to a comment I received an earlier video feature I did 2014 ...
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I wanted to present 60 of the best places to visit in Liverpool in a short video and here it is. These are some of ...
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I've chosen 60 great places to visit in the Manchester area. Here I present them in 120 seconds. I aim to attract people from outside ...
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In this video I present some of my best photographs of Berlin from around 1982 up to 2018 against the backdrop of a song I ...
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I’ve been interested in the history of Manchester for many years and as a full time coach in German, I'm very interested in the German ...
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 This video is on the subject of Beatles locations in and around Liverpool and Wirral. The Beatles legacy is a huge reason for tourists ...
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Vergehen was first recorded in 1985 as a demo tape, and re-recorded 20 years later, in 2005. Words and music by Aidan O'Rourke, who played ...
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 This article is adapted from the script I wrote for this video for my Explore Learn German YouTube channel, launched 9.1.2019. Using bilingual headings ...
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A VERY INSECURE EXHIBITION was an exhibition that took place on Friday, 22 February, 2019 in a skate park under the Mancunian Way flyover in ...
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London, capital of the UK. A great world city. A great European city. In early 2019 MPs here in Westminster had an important decision to ...
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In 2018 I made a video entitled 'Is it time to go back to film?" In 2019 I decided to do a new version of ...
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What goes through the mind of a photo competition judge when he or she is choosing which photos to select? Are there any tips or ...
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I’ve been running the Victoria Baths Photography Workshop for a few years now and have welcomed a large number of people, ranging from complete beginners ...
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In this post I present my portfolio of illustrations, done in various locations and at various times. I was good at drawing as a child ...
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On this page I present photographs of Edgeley and Cheadle Heath from my portfolio of photographs. I have a special interest in the area as ...
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As part of every photo walk I do and every private tuition session in photography I give, I deliver my 'should-be-patented' one-hour lesson in Aperture, ...
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In Jan 2020 I went to the Dublin Bowie Festival and I was capturing the people, sights and sounds of the event imusing my iPhone ...
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1. Take your photography to a higher level That's the main reason people come on the Photo Walk in Liverpool and in Manchester - to ...
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Blog post about my photo e-book on Trinity College Dublin will appear here ...
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As part of my photo e-book project, I’ve made a selection of my best photos of Stockport and presented them in a free photographic e-book ...
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Salford Quays is an area that has undergone huge transformation in recent decades. What was once the Manchester Docks is now a futuristic district where ...
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Manchester, a city in North West England - a British city with international and European influences, a city where migration has played a key role ...
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ENGLISCHE VERSION Viele Menschen in Großbritannien tragen Mohnblumen als Symbol des Gedenkens an die Opfer von Kriegen, besonders die gefallenen Soldaten der beiden Weltkriege. In ...
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GERMAN VERSION Many people in the UK wear poppies as a symbol of remembrance for the victims of war, especially the fallen soldiers of both ...
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ENGLISCHE VERSION Ich besuchte in Liverpool die Anglikanische Kathedrale und habe dort den Mond gesehen! Nicht den wirklichen, sondern einen verkleinerten Mond, der ein Fünfhunderttausendtel ...
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This bilingual video project is currently in pre-production. I am gathering the information and the photographs and hope to launch the video during October 2018 ...
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GERMAN VERSION I went to Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and inside, I saw the moon - not the one in the sky but a scaled down ...
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I took this photograph in 1981 my final year at university. I was lucky enough to get a summer job at the CIEE student travel ...
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BITTE HIER KLICKEN, UM DIE ENGLISCHE VERSION ZU SEHEN. Wenn wir an George Best denken, denken wir dann an seinen Fußball, oder an seinen Alkoholismus? ...
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CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE GERMAN VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE When we think about George Best, do we remember him for his football, or for ...
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Ich habe im Juli 2018 dieses Video gemacht. Es präsentiert meine Auswahl der fünfzig besten und schlechtesten Gebäude in Manchester. Ich interessiere mich seit meiner ...
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Please click here to subscribe to my channel and view more of my videos- Thank you!I made this video in July, 2018 and it presents ...
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Norman Parkinson, (born in 1913) a contemporary of Beaton, also photographed the beau monde during the twenties and thirties, but, as he explains, with certain ...
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Some images on this page were lost during the transfer to this new web page. I hope to place them in the text again. By ...
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Horst P Horst (born 1906-1999) was a friend of Hoyningen-Huene, and also had a fascination for classical imagery, indeed he made a detailed study of ...
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I wrote this essay on fashion photography for my A level in Photography which I completed in 1997 at Manchester College of Art and Technology, ...
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The Japanese version of this article and video will appear here shortly ...
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I went to Xaverian College, Manchester, UK, when it was a boys’ grammar school. It was a direct grant grammar school. It received funding from ...
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Im Juli 2020 habe ich eine Dia-Show für ein Video des Sängers Zinney Sonnenberg gemacht. Das Video erschien am 04.07.2020 im Global-Liverpool-Facebook-Event. Der Song 'Liverhearts ...
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Music slide show video and musician interview In July 2020 I made a slide show for a video by the singer Zinney Sonnenberg. The video ...
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A Beatles journey With this video I wanted to create a work of art, combining my photography with a wonderful contemporary-oriental musical backdrop and subtitles ...
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Interview, transcript & photos, Multimedia Presentation I recorded this interview with CP Lee on Friday the 28th of July 2006 and the recording has been ...
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Artikel und Videopodcast in deutscher und englischer Sprache ENGLISH VERSION Es geht in diesem Beitrag um zwei Musik-Events in Europa: Bayreuth und Glyndebourne. Beide Festivals ...
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Article and Visual Podcast in English and German versions CLICK TO TO GO TO THE GERMAN VERSION Why was the airport that was once the ...
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Artikel und Videopodcast in deutscher und englischer Sprache ENGLISCHE VERSION Warum wurde der einst größte Flughafen der Welt mitten in einer Wildnis gebaut? Die Antwort ...
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Article and Videopodcast in German und English GERMAN VERSION This feature is about two music events in Europe: Bayreuth and Glyndebourne. Both festivals are family-run ...
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AidanEyewitness YouTube Channel There are many connections between Liverpool and Wales. It's said that Liverpool is regarded by many people in North Wales as their ...
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I am a coach in languages and I’m keen to explore issues concerning the UK and Germany. This presentation is mostly in English but I ...
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Artikel und Videopodcast in deutscher und englischer Sprache Es gibt viele Verbindungen zwischen Liverpool und Wales. Es wird gesagt, dass viele Menschen in Nordwales Liverpool ...
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In Manchester, for quite a few years now, a massive construction boom has been going on. From a distance, for instance from the airport some ...
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Hello students, hello everyone! And welcome to my channel, the Audio Visual Zine. I am presenting a newer version of my video from 2019 with ...
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In Manchester herrscht seit einigen Jahren ein regelrechter Bauboom. In vielen Teilen der Stadt entstehen neue Gebäude. Überall sieht man Kräne. An jeder Ecke hört ...
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This is a new version of my video from 2019 with some extra airport scenes from 2020. It's now in my AVZ channel format with ...
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Video embedded at 23.56 hrs on Friday 18.12.2020. Video uploaded 16.12.2020 26 views after 3 days. In mid-2020 I wrote a new and extended version ...
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INTRODUCTION I’m interested in cities. I love to explore them, photograph them and see how they develop. Unfortunately, sometimes things go wrong. In 1999 on ...
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In this feature, we look at five artists who have depicted Manchester. Art defines cities. The Impressionists painted Paris and captured the Zeitgeist - the ...
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INTRODUCTION In this feature, we go on a tour of 47 Beatles locations in Liverpool and Wirral. In 2018 I created a video featuring 38 ...
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Do Not Refreeze was an exhibition at the Cornerhouse Manchester that was on in 2007. I wrote an article about it, uploaded on the 26th ...
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Miniatur Wunderland is the largest model railway in the world! But it's more than 'just' a model railway. It's a scaled-down version of the world ...
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This article is adapted from the script of the video Manchester Before and After. It's a new version of a video I first made a ...
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In this article write about the background to my video published on the 29th of March 2021. Please click on 'play' above to view the ...
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Article about Limerick in one day to appear here ...
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An article about the short film will appear on this page. In the meantime, here's a list of clips and photos, with timings. 00:00 Introduction ...
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The AidanEyewitness blog is the diary of a multilingual content creator and coach. In this blog I want to share some background information about my ...
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In the AidanEyewitness blog, I reveal some of the background to my videos and other projects. I go into detail that's not practical in a ...
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Two videos: The beauty of the Liverpool Waterfront - My views on the UNESCO delisting For years, the Liverpool waterfront has been one of my ...
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This video, Building Boom in Manchester 2021 follows on from my 2020 video on the same subject. This time, I take a bike tour around ...
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This article provides some background information on the video presented on my AidanEyewitness channel 13.08.2021. In the video we take a tour around the UNESCO ...
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Aug 31 2016 On a visit to North Wales I unexpectedly witnessed a spectacular lightning storm. I had my camera and tripod with me as ...
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I first published the following article in 1997. It told the story of our short period of ownership of a classic split screen camper. A ...
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How long does it take to learn a foreign language? The phrase that springs to mind is: 'How long is a piece of string?'. There ...
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This article is adapted from the script of my video 'Is Manchester a mini-Manhattan'. I've always felt there were similarities and parallels between Manchester and ...
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