Pictures of the week: Liverpool Unfinished by Rob Bremner

From shaven-headed teens to women in headscarves and rollers, Rob Bremner documented everyday life in the Everton Valley, Liverpool, during the mid-1980s.→
Photograph: Rob Bremner

High-rises were condemned, poverty was rife and unemployment high as the city continued to suffer from the 1981 closure of the Tate & Lyle factory. →
Photograph: Rob Bremner

And yet, says Bremner – a student when he took these portraits – Liverpool’s renowned friendliness shone through almost everyone he approached.→
Photograph: Rob Bremner

He recalls endless afternoons in pubs – on one occasion he drank so much he left without his cameras, which belonged to his college; when he went back for them the next day, they had been put behind the bar for safekeeping.→
Photograph: Rob Bremner

Many believe the city has never recovered from the jobs meltdown that struck it under Margaret Thatcher’s government, which, some think, withheld funding needed to address its dire economic situation.→
Photograph: Rob Bremner

Just two years into Thatcher’s first term in office, inner cities around the country saw an explosion of violence, including riots in Brixton and Toxteth.→
Photograph: Rob Bremner

Michael Heseltine, dubbed Minister for Merseyside, was sent to Liverpool as a troubleshooter and was instrumental in beginning its regeneration.→
Photograph: Rob Bremner

He went on to oversee the restoration of the city’s Albert Dock and the launch of its garden festivals in 1984, yet his efforts were criticised as doing little to alleviate conditions for Liverpool’s residents.→
Photograph: Rob Bremner

The serious, occasionally mournful faces of many of Bremner’s portraits reflect a city living through hard times. He has christened his series “Liverpool, Unfinished”, as he’d like to return one day. He may find little has changed.

Liverpool, Unfinished, by Rob Bremner, is at the Wolstenholme Creative Space, Liverpool, from 17 May-2 June, as part of the Look/13 photography festival, until 15 June.
Photograph: Rob Bremner