Tonys - a photo documentary

Tony's Barbershop in Levenshulme, Manchester, has been a local institutionfor decades. I'd walked past it countless times before finally stepping insidefor a haircut-l hadn't been anywhere else in years.The shop is more than a place for haircuts; it's a social hub for a diversegroup of local men. A Bialetti 4-cup espresso machine runs constantly,manned mostly by Antonio, who is usually on coffee duty. The coffee is thebest in Manchester, and once you're accepted as part of the furniture, ahaircut often comes with a shot of brandy or whiskey in your cup.Tony, who passed retirement age many years ago, now keeps the shopopen only on Thursdays and Saturdays for health reasons. The back room isusually full of older men, ignoring the TV with a mix of random programmes.I began photographing Tony's casually, but it grew into a personal project.These unofficial social hubs survive quietly in corners of the UK, but oncethey're gone, they're often forgotten. My aim is to document the people andthe life that make these places real, preserving a small but essential piece ofcommunity history.​