Photographs of A Changing City: Liverpool in the 1990s

Many of the places photographed by Richard no longer exist, having made way for new enterprise, luxury apartments, hotels and shopping malls. One year on from winning the European Capital of Culture Award in 2008, Liverpool is still undergoing a massive transformation.

The photographs here have been selected from Richard's portfolio of student work, and were taken circa. 1985. Some of the prints have begun to discolour. I have tried to lighten and sharpen some of the images a little on computer, without changing the atmosphere captured in my husband's work.

We hope you enjoy viewing these images from a fading era.

Liverpool was once one of the most important ports in the world. People and goods from across the globe passed through this city on their way East or West, and some of them settled here. Liverpool has the oldest China Town in Britain, for example.

Exactly how much of Liverpool's wealth came from the slave industry is open to debate. That it was vast is indisputable. Slave ships from Africa docked here on their way to the Americas. On the return journey the ships brought sugar, tobacco and cotton, amongst other goods, grown on the slave plantations.

I once heard a tour guide try to gloss over the city's role in human trafficking. It was a taboo subject and best ignored, she said. But the legacy of the trade's wealth is all around in the elaborate historical architecture; and the stone sculptures reveal their own tale - one which should not remain silent.

August 23rd is now Slavery Remembrance Day.