Quiet light : Photographs by Gunner Gu

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Wed 11 Jun 2025

Back in 2015, a little thought crept into my brain: what if I tried to photograph the city of Manchester without a single soul in sight? A fun idea, right? Of course, executing it proved to be a bit trickier than I imagined. Fast forward to Christmas Day, when I finally had my shot—only to be thwarted by persistent rain for the next two years. I managed just a handful of photos around the Central Library. Then, the pandemic hit. Suddenly, the streets were mine for the taking, and I had a blast capturing the city in all its brilliant emptiness, often standing in the middle of the road like I owned the place. Pure bliss, although I felt like something was still missing from the whole venture.

Zoom ahead to 2022, and I began to dig deeper into Manchester's history, particularly its modernist architectural transformation. That's when it all clicked—the missing piece was the theme, the glue holding it all together. With a burgeoning career making me pickier than ever about my craft, I revisited old buildings, trying out new angles like a photographer on a mini-mission. It all came together one early morning at the Renold Building, where a solitary delivery truck was my only company amidst the eerie quiet. Bingo—that spark turned into a fully-fledged idea, which will make its grand entrance on bookshelves in 2025, thanks to The Modernist. Until then, you can catch a sneak peek of around 100 dawn-taken photographs of the city's architectural gems.

More information at the-modernist.org/blogs/news/quiet-light




#exhibition

%wnmanchester