Preston Bus Station by Jamie Hawkesworth

Publisher: Dashwood Books

Year: 2017

Format: Hardcover

Edition: First. Limited edition of 2,000 copies.

Condition: New. 

It was while living in Preston in 2010 that the city’s imposing Brutalist bus station, built by Ove Arup and Partners in 1969, first caught Hawkesworth’s eye. “I did a project with Adam Murray, an ex-tutor of mine, where we spent the weekend at the bus station and produced a little newspaper filled with portraits of the teenagers we saw there”.  A few years later when Hawkesworth heard of plans to demolish the iconic building he determined to "move back to Preston for a month and spend every day in the bus station taking photographs. The station is one big loop, and I just walked around it all day, every day, just waiting for people to pop out at me. I tried not to think about it any more than that, it was just whoever would catch my eye in a particular moment. It was a centre for Megabus so if a bus comes from up North, it goes through Preston to go South, so there was always an influx of really interesting people coming through the station. When I found someone, I’d ask to take their portrait and that was it. To a certain extent, I was trying to be spontaneous about it; whether it was an old man, a kid with a funny haircut or interesting shoes – I just let anything be photographed.”