A modern mooch around Middleton

As part of our engagement activities around the Middleton Masterplan, we took locals on a series of artist-led roams around the town. The idea was to explore the urban area in a new way, encouraging conversations and creative thinking for the future of Middleton town centre.

One of these urban roams took the form of an architectural walking tour of Middleton's buildings, through the lens of photographer and flaneur, Stephen Marland.

Starting outside Middleton Library, the walk took in the sites of renowned Middleton resident Edgar Wood and his iconic buildings. As well as some lesser known and surprising locations along the way.

Stephen Marland is a photographer with a particular interest in the built environment and how people interact with it. This fascination has led him to unusual and surprising places, that people may not typically frequent to find beauty. He studied at Ashton Technical College on the Pre-Diploma course, under the renowned tutelage of Bill Clarke.

Marland himself taught photography and design at a variety of further education colleges in Manchester, for some thirty years, and has taken photographs for as long as he can remember. This process of documentation is crucial to his practice, stating ‘My aim is to simply record as objectively as possible’. The work that he creates springs from the location that he finds himself in, with the photographs produced being a direct response to the mainly architectural subject matter before him. He is eternally curious concerning why these places exist, their interconnectedness with their surroundings and how and why they came to be. How does he gain his unique perspective on his surroundings? ‘I look straight at things’

Stephen currently leads architectural walks for the Modernist Society, publishes photographic books, gives academic talks on his practice and exhibits widely.