The Reclaim Book
In 2007, the first Reclaim project brought 45 12- and 13-year-old boys from Manchester’s Moss Side district onto a six-month mentoring and confidence-building programme with impressive results. Akeim, now 17: “Reclaim changed me. If I wasn’t on the project I’d probably be in a gang now. Instead I do community work.” During 2010 I followed the Gorton Girls’ Reclaim project, documenting the girls’ sometimes faltering but nevertheless steady progress until their ‘graduation day’ when they celebrated their achievement in front of friends and family. In The Reclaim Book I also include interviews with the girls’ parents or carers that reveal much about the pressures faced by young people in our inner cities.
Design by Axis Graphic Design. Written and (mostly) photographed by Len Grant
Foreword by Eric Allison, prison correspondent for The Guardian
Published by Len Grant Photography, 2011
ISBN: 9780952672081 | £12 | 136 pages | softback
Available from Cornerhouse
Shooting the Breeze
See what happens when a poet and a photographer travel to the four corners of Manchester, erect a backdrop on the street and invite passers-by to be photographed. The poems and portraits were first 'performed' as part of the Didsbury Arts Festival, October 2010. See also Shooting the Breeze.
Design by Axis Graphic Design. Poems by Linda Chase, portraits by Len Grant, documentary photography by Mario Popham
86 pages | softback
Available from blurb.com for £15.95 plus postage
Billy and Rolonde
Billy and Rolonde is a personal project about the socially excluded. The 128-page books follows the journeys of an asylum seeker, a homeless man and a heroin addict. See Billy and Rolonde.
Design by Axis Graphic Design. Written and photographed by Len Grant
Published by Len Grant Photography, 2010
ISBN: 9780952672067 | £15 | 128 pages | hardback
Available from Cornerhouse
Reclaiming East Manchester
Reclaiming East Manchester: Ten years of resident-led regeneration has been commissioned to tell the story of the New Deal for Communities programme in east Manchester. It includes dozens of interviews with residents and regeneration officers to offer a forthright account of the renewal process. Based on a timeline with quotes, facts and over 250 images, the book will resonate with others following a similar journey as well as professionals and academics observing urban regeneration.
Design by Axis Graphic Design. Written, project managed and some photography by Len Grant
Published by Len Grant Photography on behalf of New East Manchester Ltd, 2010
ISBN: 9780952672067 | £10 | 184 pages | hardback
Available from Cornerhouse
Carver's Warehouse
The Carver's Warehouse book charts the conversion of a rundown warehouse – the oldest in Manchester – from a bathroom showroom to renovated offices.
With page after page of full bleed images the book chronicles the crafts of stonemasons, timber specialists, roofers, electricians, joiners and glazers. It follows a journey of patient professionalism as the engineers and builders grapple to bring this beautiful, nineteenth-century relic into use for the twenty-first century.
Design by Axis Graphic Design. Photography and project management by Len Grant
Privately published by Town Centre Securities, 2008
Not for public sale
338x240mm | 72 pages | hardback, with slipcase
Afterword by Martin Stockley
From the Ground Up: New Islington 2001–2007
New Islington is Manchester’s Millennium Community programme, a fifteen year project to convert a ‘sink estate’ on the edge of the city centre into what the developers hope to be the ‘best place to live in Manchester’.
In From the Ground Up: New Islington 2001-2007, Len Grant follows the whole process from poring over Will Alsop’s master plan in the local pub to the first residents moving into their award-winning new homes.
“It’s my dream home,” says one new resident… “it’s bleeding Legoland!” declares a passer-by.
Interviews and comments from architects, local residents, engineers and contractors add to the chronology of imagery that make this book an important record of twenty-first century sustainable regeneration.
Published by Len Grant Photography on behalf of The New Islington Client Group, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9526720-5-0 | £13 | 120 pages | softback
Available from Cornerhouse
East
East is a 28-page, photography-led magazine about regeneration in east Manchester. Through Len Grant's images and articles from local writers, East chronicles the massive rejuvenation on the east side of the city.
The first issue included a feature on the construction of Thomas Heatherwick’s ill-fated B of the Bang. This won the ‘Best Use of Image’ Award at the 2005 SUN Awards.
Subsequent issues examine not only the physical regeneration projects – new housing and infrastructure – but also the personal experiences of residents living through these changes.
Ten issues of East have been published since 2005 by Len Grant Photography on behalf of New East Manchester Ltd. The format has now been transferred to the web at thisiseast.com
ISSN: 1745-827
28 pages | softback | 340x250mm
Design by Axis Graphic Design
Some back issues may be available from New East Manchester
Our House
The Our House project is about people’s experiences of regeneration. This 160-page book was published to coincide with the exhibition at The Lowry, 23rd September–19th November 2006.
In it Len Grant updates portraits and interviews from his New Islington; Jo and Christoph Shaw elicit views on urban change from Salford residents and Liz Lock and Mishka Henner survey Hattersley in Tameside prior to its regeneration programme.
Our House also includes work from 15 year-old Charlie Burns from Hattersley who has made a personal record of his home town and its residents.
Published by Len Grant Photography, 2006
ISBN 10: 0-9526720-4-9 | ISBN 13: 978-0-9526720-4-3
£10 | 160 pages | softback
With an essay by Phil Griffin
Available from Cornerhouse
The Reluctant Engineer and other Manchester stories
He’s been instrumental in most of the major regeneration schemes in Manchester’s recent history but no-one has heard of him. He played a key role in reshaping the city centre after the terrorist bomb but shoppers and office workers take his work for granted. He’s found elegant solutions to many of the city’s latest engineering challenges but hates being called an engineer.
The Reluctant Engineer and other Manchester stories tells of Martin Stockley’s considerable contribution to his adopted city since his arrival in 1993. The book is a collaboration with photographer Len Grant and graphic designer Alan Ward in which Stockley offers an alternative view of the city’s rebirth.
Published by Martin Stockley Associates, 2006
ISBN: 0-9552408-0-8
£15 | 80 pages | hardback
With an introduction by Warren Bramley
Available from Stockley
Full Time at Maine Road
In 2003 Manchester City Football Club left Maine Road for the new City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester. For 80 years the ground had been synonymous with the terraced streets of Moss Side and the club had woven itself into the fabric of the community.
When it was decided the old stadium should make way for new homes, photographer Len Grant was commissioned to document the transition. He recorded each stage of the demolition from inside as well as outside the ground, photographing and interviewing local people along the way.
Full Time at Maine Road, follows the demise of Moss Side’s famous landmark and tells the story of a community’s loss, anxiety and hopes for the future.
Published by Len Grant Photography, 2004
ISBN: 0 9526 7203 0
£13.00 | 128 pages | softback
With an introductory interview with Radio 2’s Mark Radcliffe
Only a few remaining: contact Len Grant
A Portrait of Manchester
In recent years the stereotypical ‘grim up north’ image of Manchester has been totally transformed. Familiar landmarks have disappeared as bold new buildings have taken their place; new public spaces have sprung up where there were none before, and trendy new shops and pavement cafés have mushroomed in the now highly-fashionable city centre.
Len Grant’s A Portrait of Manchester documents the city’s astonishing renaissance, and provides a celebration of the rebirth of this amazing city.
Published by Halsgrove, 2004
ISBN: 1 84114 380 4
£12.95 | 144 pages | hardback
Available from Halsgrove
Cardroom Voices
Cardroom Voices is the first in a series of books to document the development of New Islington, Manchester's Millennium Community.
Local residents, from 12 to 90-year-olds, relate their personal experiences of the old Cardroom Estate and talk candidly about their aspirations for the future.
‘We wanted to make sure that some of the strength of the community we originally encountered was captured and celebrated and so commissioned Len Grant, Manchester's documentor of change, to capture some of the characters on film and on tape. The result is this book’.
Nick Johnson, Urban Splash
Published by The New Islington Client Group, 2004
ISBN: 0 9547281 0 6
£9.95 | 48 pages | softback
Available from Urban Splash 0161 839 2999
Space to inspire
Commissioned by Groundwork this book aims to capture some of the people and places that are helping east Manchester to find its feet again.
‘This is a story of a programme of environmental regeneration that has unfolded in the shadows of the Commonwealth Games, away from the cameras and fireworks and away from the attention of the world… This is a book about community spirit and what it feels like to find it again.’
Ian MacArthur, Regional Director, Groundwork North West
Published by Groundwork North West, 2004
ISBN: 0 9547102 0 7
64 pages | softback
Making Manchester 1990–2003
Published to coincide with Grant’s mid-term retrospective at CUBE in Manchester, Making Manchster 1990–2003, summaries his regeneration projects through portriature. His images record the renaissance of a city at a significant period in its recent history.
‘The special quality that Len Grant brings to his work is himself; his openness and his ability to put people at their ease. It is never a problem having Len around, which is why people open to him.’
Phil Griffin
Published by Len Grant Photography, 2003
ISBN: 0 9526720 2 2
£9.95 | 98 pages | softback
Essays by Phil Griffin and Sue Vanden
Available from Len Grant
The Mancunian Way
Commissioned by Manchester City Council and published to coincide with the Commonwealth Games 2002, The Mancunian Way, features text and images from leading writers and photographers.
‘Manchester is a place of education, scientific enquiry, international trade, sport, music and leisure – a city of many passions. It has a spirit developed from a constant ability to embrace change and to look forward, a city that sets trends and has high ambitions. It has a special way of doing things – the Mancunian Way.’
Photographers: Jan Chlebik, Len Grant and Paul Herrmann
Published by Clinamen Press, 2002
ISBN: 1 903083 81 8
160 pages | hardback
Available from amazon
Making The Lowry
With writer Jeremy Myerson this book shows the workings of a fascinating process: the creation of one of Britain's landmark projects for the Millennium. Already a major catalyst for urban renewal, The Lowry has quickly established itself as a hugely-popular cultural venue.
Published by The Lowry Press, 2000
ISBN: 1 902970 04 7
176 pages | hardback
Available from The Lowry online shop
A Way of Life: Portraits from the Funeral Trade
Funeral director, gravedigger, embalmer, priest, pathologist. Len Grant’s portraits and interviews reveal the humanity, care and compassion of those involved with the realities of life after death.
With passion and sincerity, his subjects talk about their day-to-day routine in the ‘dismal trade’. For many it’s a vocation… a way of life.
‘Such a fine eye! Such a well-tuned ear!… A Way of Life brings faces, voices and a rich humanity. A rare and welcome find.’
Thomas Lynch, author of The Undertaking.
Published by Len Grant Photography, 1999
Introduction by Blake Morrison
ISBN: 0 9526720 1 4
£9.95 | 48 pages | softback
Available from Len Grant
Built to Music, The Making of The Bridgewater Hall
Commissioned and published by Manchester City Council to document the construction of the city’s new international concert venue. Built to Music, the making of The Bridgewater Hall, has become a document of urban renewal and a record of the first new civic building in Manchester for 60 years.
Published by Manchester City Council, 1996
ISBN: 1 872650 02 3
£19.95 | 96 pages | hardback
Available from amazon
Arena! The Building of the NYNEX Arena
Len Grant documents the 30-month transformation of Manchester Victoria Station into the largest indoor arena in Europe. Now known as the Manchester Evening News Arena.
Published by Len Grant Photography, 1995
ISBN: 0 9526720 0 6
£14.95 | 96 pages | softback
Available from Cornerhouse