Five Kids by Bernard Fallon. Courtesy National Museums Liverpool
Liverpool’s National Conservation Centre will be showing an exhibition of early images from celebrated local-born photographer Bernard Fallon.
The Long Way Home, which runs from March 3 until July 15 2007, features 60 black and white photos taken between 1967 and 1975 depicting everyday Liverpool scenes.
Many were inspired by Fallon’s daily journey home from the art school in the centre of the city to Crosby, where he was born into a large Irish Catholic family in 1949.
Wedding Cake by Bernard Fallon. Courtesy National Museums Liverpool
Fallon was fascinated by the changing urban landscape and social environment he saw on his route and he began documenting life around Liverpool. His approach was inspired by the photojournalism and candid style of photographic masters like Henri Cartier-Bresson.
“I took these pictures as an amateur in the true sense of the word,” said Fallon. “I loved the sensation of events and scenes materialising in the view finder.”
The atmospheric shots document ordinary life in the city in great detail. They capture Liverpudlians going about their daily busy in locations all over the city and also depict domestic scenes with children at home and at play.
Sweep by Bernard Fallon. Courtesy National Museums Liverpool
Many were taken in 1969 and 1970 among the Scotland Road community and formed the basis of his final year assignment at art school. It was during this period that he developed his social realism style, placing people central to the subject at a cooperative distance and with a strong composition.
One photo, showing five cheeky-looking kids standing on the riverside of Liverpool’s Scotland Road, was chosen as the lead image for the exhibition’s publicity and prompted a search for its subjects.
Staff from National Museums Liverpool asked the Liverpool Echo to show the photo and its publication prompted all five to be identified. Michael Hayden, pictured in short trousers from the 1969 shot, even agreed to attend the exhibition’s opening day.
Docks Grain Barge by Bernard Fallon. Courtesy National Museums Liverpool
Mike McCartney, who wrote the introduction to the exhibition, added: “Bernard Fallon has not only captured the essence of Liverpool’s people in the sixties, he has also brought the bricks and mortar back to life, restoring so many memories of an era which became so significant in my life.”
Fallon attended Liverpool College of Art for four years where he developed his painting and photography. After a year at the Leicester School of Photography he worked in London then moved to Los Angeles to work as a photojournalist, where he still lives.
The National Conservation Centre reopened in June 2006 after an extensive refit and looks after the collections in the National Museums Liverpool venues. Staff at the centre also work on projects for other organisations.
