Today the dry docks glimmer with salty channel rain, as woollen old men sit on one of their favourite benches to listen to the day go by. Each has a private smile as together they share the remembered songs and toughened laughter of the young hard welders they all once were.
And today as usual, visitors to the dock will be glancing at walls of dismal grey photographs. Some photographs show weary men and women waving half empty beer glasses in the air. Others are of car empty streets clogged with leather boots being dragged to early shifts. And some are of boys playing scrappy football with tight balls of Western and Echo in muddy parks bordered with adverts for cheap beer and bread.
And tomorrow? The old woollen men will return and listen to the dry docks all over again as departing visitors will once more fail to see them.
Steve Coel / An 11.59 Publication
Documentary Fiction Photography - Steve Coel
