Tony's Barbers

A PHOTO DOCUMENTARY BY AXEL BOTTENBERG
Tony's Barbershop in Levenshulme, Manchester, has been a local institution for decades. I'd walked past it countless times before finally stepping inside for 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 diverse group of local men. A Bialetti 4-cup espresso machine runs constantly, manned mostly by Antonio, who is usually on coffee duty. The coffee is the best in Manchester, and once you're accepted as part of the furniture, a haircut often comes with a shot of brandy or whiskey in your cup.
Tony, who passed retirement age many years ago, now keeps the shop open only on Thursdays and Saturdays for health reasons. The back room is usually 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 once they're gone, they're often forgotten. My aim is to document the people and the life that make these places real, preserving a small but essential piece of community history.