The Water's Edge

Published to coincide with the forthcoming exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, The Water's Edge explores a neglected area of the city's cultural history. Using a combination of essays, firsthand accounts and stunning photography The Water's Edge tells the story of the women who work, or worked, in and around the city's waterfront, or who left Liverpool to work away at sea. Michelle Sank's images accomplish something extremely rare in contemporary photographic portraiture. They allow each subject her dignity and integrity as an individual, whilst at the same time giving, through small but telling details, a glimpse of what is hidden within. This and many other aspects of Sank's photographs are discussed in detail in Roy Exley's lucid essay 'In a Man's World': Michelle Sank's Women of the Liverpool Waterfront. At the heart of the project, alongside Sank's remarkable portraits, are the myriad voices of the women she has photographed. Joanne Lacey's essay Journey to the Water's Edge tells the story of the making of the archive and of its roots in her own family history. Its central focus, however, is the voices of the contributors and the extraordinary stories they have to tell.

Joanne Lacey is director of JEL Research and has over fifteen years of combined experience in academic and commercial policy studies. Michelle Sank is a photographer whose work has been exhibited widely throughout the United Kingdom.