Perimeter

Quintin Lake explores the industrial north as his epic photo walk round the UK continues

Quintin Lake’s photo walk continues

It’s New Year’s Eve in Newcastle, and I’m the only one wearing Gore-Tex and hiking boots. “Are you all by yourself?” ask a group of revellers. “Come and have a drink with us.” When I tell them what I’m up to, we all hug, and they suggest: “Come to Greggs and get a steak bake – that’ll set you up”.

I’m up at dawn the next morning. Only the street cleaners are out, and I walk past the tinkle of last night’s broken glass being swept up. The city rapidly discards its urbane allure, returning to its industrial roots past

the Baltic. At Walker Quay, I’m photographing a hammerhead crane in soft orange light when the telephoto lens stops focusing. It is broken. After much experimentation, I realise I can get it to focus if I switch it to manual, turn the lens sideways and tease the focus ring anti-clockwise while pressing the shutter release multiple times. This is how I continue to use the lens for the following weeks.

At Seaton Sands near Hartlepool, the beach is full of dozens of black shadowless figures, fully dressed for winter. Their striding legs and the backdrop of smoking industrial chimneys make me think of the painter Lowry, who lived nearby.

Approaching the Tees, chemical burning smell fills the air and leaves a metallic taste in the back of the mouth. I’m excited to be photographing a fully synthetic landscape. A low rumble of container ships flows up and down the river. In every direction, there are glistening chimneys and plumes of steam.

It’s easy to see how Teesside inspired Ridley Scott for the opening scene of Blade Runner. The oil refinery appears like an unknown city, with the flare stacks like the sacred flame for an unknown god. From the tent, I hear the steady rumble of the power station, punctuated by the moaning of seals.

Early next morning, I’m woken up by an unusually assertive “Good morning” from outside. I unzip the tent to see two black-clad armed Civil Nuclear police officers, wanting to know what I’m doing. When I explain, they relax and wish me well, even letting me take a jovial photo of them standing guard over my tiny shelter.

I arrive in Middlesbrough after dark and wonder why I’m getting weird looks, before I realise that I’m still wearing my rather sizeable head-torch while walking down the high street.

I nearly missed the paddler in this shot, as I was concentrating on the exposure of the bridges. In this frame, where the position of the paddler was best, I had zoomed in too tightly, so I had to extend the sky slightly in Photoshop afterwards. The Millennium Bridge where I was standing vibrated strongly as a steady flow of people passed over, so even though I started on a tripod, I had to take this shot handheld with a higher ISO.