Paul Trevor

Book excerpt: In 1975 Paul Trevor came to Liverpool to document inner city deprivation for the 'Survival Programmes' project. His remarkable photographs told a different story however. Their backdrop may be the dereliction of post-war Liverpool. But these images went beyond this bleak cityscape and got close to his real subject: families and children. This exhibition of Paul's direct and honest street photography showed life as it was lived in a community defiant in the face of poverty, unemployment and the state of their surroundings. He depicted a place where the streets and wastelands became playgrounds, the family was a constant, and where children seem fun-loving and free. Paul returned to the same Liverpool communities in the summer of 2010. After a lively reunion with local residents, one said: "Paul, it's like you've never been away!" -- Exhibition website.