I have captured Liverpool on film since the late 1970s.

Through the years of dereliction on the dockside and then revival, through recession and recovery, through riots and despair and through hope.

Never have I framed Liverpool through silence.

A city that hardly ever sleeps has fallen into a silent reverie and not one of its own making.

This is an historic moment and I have kindly been granted permission to capture this strange phase in our lives and I hope it will be just that, a moment, a strange and short phase.

Before long the roar of the Kop will fill Anfield and the crowds will sing again to the sea shanty and Z-Cars theme which leads out the blues.

It’s a privilege to see the architecture of the city and its famous landmarks and streets in a way I have never seen them before but like all true lovers of their home city, I can’t wait for the renaissance which I know will follow.

That renaissance will not be in the spirit of community and sacrifice, that’s always been there, but in our sense of pride and belonging.

The pride in the people who have kept us all going in the NHS and all the key services and in a million gestures of kindness which go unspoken.

The city without its heartbeat is worthy of study but like you, I long for the heartbeat to return.

In the meantime study it closely and its magnificence is worthy of the great cities across the kingdom and world.

I have been a photographer based in Liverpool since 1977 when I was a young assistant with a company called Photoflex based on Bostock Street just off Great Homer Street (remember the Saturday Market? ) The site now being part of the Project Jennifer development with a Sainsburys superstore, the footprint of the old studio is now a Costa Coffee which is ironic considering the amount of time I spend in various coffee houses waiting for the right light whilst on architectural assignments!

Back in 2008 I was the principal photographer for the Grosvenor book Liverpool One: Remaking a City Centre and a RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) book called Liverpool: Shaping the City.

I have had a number of Liverpool books published under my own name including ‘Portrait of Liverpool’ and ‘Liverpool The Great City’ and I am currently working on new content for ‘Liverpool: City of Architecture’ and some of these images of Liverpool in Lockdown will form part of the new book which will be especially important moving forward in order to showcase our city.

A photographer and an artist have much in common, they study beauty but also pain and joy and sometimes they happen in the same moment.

That sums up how I feel about this assignment.

Liverpool City Centre is a strange place at the moment, it is quiet as it should be under a ‘lockdown’ order.

I have been documenting the streets devoid of traffic and pedestrians whereas normally shoppers or business people going about their day to day activities would make the streets hum with the hubbub of daily life.

It is unprecedented in my lifetime probably in everybody’s, so I felt it needed documenting properly, not mobile phone snaps but proper images seen through the eyes of an architectural photographer who knows the city well..

I only started this project on the 18th April (permissions to be out and about had to be secured) and I started at Lime Street Station on a beautifully sunny day, at a time when the concourse and steps outside would be exceptionally busy with commuters either rushing for their trains or enjoying sitting in the sun waiting for departures often with a coffee in hand from one of the four popular establishments. Instead it was eerily empty, round stickers on the floor indicating the ideal social distancing measures, not that they were needed.

Perhaps in the next couple of weeks those floor markings will be needed when people start to try to go back to work. The neon signs applauding and thanking the NHS heroes for the work that they do will surely stay? and I hope that they will remain for quite a while longer as these workers and all others in the carer sector need to be revered.

Every now and again a prospective traveller would wander across the concourse, outnumbered by the Network Rail and station staff, station announcements would announce the departure of the 15.47 to London which was made up of 11 carriages!

11 carriages perhaps more in hope than current economic sense.

Liverpool One on a warm Saturday evening normally buzzing with shoppers and restaurant goers, silent and deserted with the occasional Deliveroo bike rider rushing to make a destination, Castle Street full of business people, cars , buses and taxis again quiet and still

The same for Dale Street, North John Street, Church Street, The Albert Dock and Pier Head - the list goes on.

Historically one hopes that this will never happen again, but in the meantime I will continue to photograph the city and capture something rare, something unusual and something wonderful – a silent City of Architecture.

I will update this blog and my web site as my work progresses.

More images of 'Lockdown Liverpool' can be seen on the Non Commissioned page of the site

In the meantime – stay safe.

The BlackE and Chinese Arch from Berry Street