Lynette Arden

Lynette Arden was born in Sydney, Australia, where she still lives. In the early 1970s she came to Liverpool to study graphic design, including photography, at Liverpool College of Art and Design.

Photographs of Liverpool

Lynette took the photos of Liverpool streets shown here using her first camera, a manual 35mm Praktica. She remembers:

"These photos of children in Liverpool were among the first photos I ever took.

When I went out with my camera subjects that would have been everyday and probably not particularly interesting to other Liverpool residents fascinated me because they were unfamiliar. Sometimes when people saw me in the streets they thought I was a reporter. I recall one woman stopping me and telling me I should visit her place to see what a bad state it was in. She may have thought that some publicity would get the authorities to act.

The children I saw in the streets were lively, but the background they lived in seemed difficult.

I photographed the children on the bikes in a street in Liverpool 8. Their faces struck me as being full of bravado and mischief. These children showed no trace of shyness; they were obviously ready to take on the world, whatever that might bring.

Looking at the photos now they bring back the memories of Liverpool quite sharply. Black and white and gray seems to fit my images of these streets."

Read a full interview with Lynette about her memories of studying in Liverpool here.