It is hard to imagine a day when the name 'Leroy Cooper' won't be linked to the 1981 Toxteth riots .
Despite not setting foot in L8 during the disturbances, as he was on remand after his arrest which triggered the riots, he said he has found it difficult to escape the events.
But in the nearly 40 years since the riots, which Leroy described as "a journey" he has found solace in photography, which he said has given him a way through.
Leroy began studying photography after he was arrested during a disturbance in Toxteth that followed another man being apprehended by the police for stealing a bicycle.
He returned to L8 after time spent on remand and in borstal - eventually signing up for a 12-week course with Open Eye gallery in 1984.
Since then he has been photographing the people of Liverpool, amassing a "treasure chest" of hundreds of thousands of images that take in a nearly 40-year period.
Now Leroy is launching a book at the Bluecoat in an event organised by Writing on the Wall , as part of Black History Month on October 30.
The book, Back in the Day Vol. 1, includes a selection of images from the early days of his photographic journey.
Leroy said: "I was about 24 or 25 and basically it was in the aftermath of the 1981 situation and coming out of borstal and going - what are you going to do with yourself, what opportunities are there for you? - and I decided that I was going to be an artist and I was going to be a photographer.
"It began to feel like 'this is your mission in life Leroy, you can go anywhere and take photographs', and I have done - but there's something about Liverpool that it's important to record, and especially from the perspective of a guy like me and the kind of people that I interact with.
"I don't think anybody else could have gone through Liverpool 8 taking photos like I have. These are photographs of Leroy's Liverpool."
In recent years, Leroy has started to exhibit some of his remarkable collection of photographs, including in 2018 at the Unity Theatre and at Toxteth library this summer.
His book spans a period between 1984 and 1989 and features many scenes of daily life in Liverpool at that time.
Leroy said: "I approach people, explain who I am, what I'm doing and that I'd like to take their photo to put in the collection - that in 100 years time I'll be dead and everyone in the collection will be dead but the photos will still be there.
"So I say, 'I'm taking your photo - I want you to think of something positive about life and Liverpool you want to tell people 100 years from now.
Don't tell me, just think it, as that will be in the photo, your positive energy will be in the photo'.
"I say I'll take it after three, but then I take it after two.
"Technically I prefer film - I think there's a different quality to negatives with film than there is to digital - but we're nearly in 2020.
"I started doing this in 1984 so obviously technology has moved on leaps and bounds - its been forever since I've been in the dark room to process a role of film or print pictures.
"When I used to shoot on film, I had to be more judicious in my choice of photographs. It's different now."
It is important to Leroy that he is featuring local people in his images.
He said: "It's about letting people see what I see, letting people feel the things that I feel through the photography - l was with a one time a young wannabe gangster type character.
"We were in town somewhere and I used to have a little folder and he was looking through it. He goes - 'Leroy how come you always take photos of no marks and nobodies - two fellas digging a hole in the road, or an old lady putting her shopping away in Kwik Save?'
"I said in 100 years' time we'll all be dead but they'll still be around - everyone in those photos, there's something about them that has drawn my attention.
"People in 100 years are going to look at those photos, but there's nothing about you I want people in a hundred years to see and ponder over because you're just a 10- a-penny wannabe gangster."
Photography has been his way of interacting positively with the world.
Leroy said: "Over the years I've been involved in lots of creative projects where I've contributed, I've done stuff, and basically it's been my way of interacting with the world but in a positive way, having a constructive outlook that when I wake up it's another day for photographs, another day to paint, to write something.
"I had a change in my life - a different outlook. I emerged out of a relationship and it was like I'd been in a kind of rehab, I came out the other end and things didn't look the same to me.
"I first had the idea of this book after I saw an exhibition at the Bluecoat of Tricia Porter - she took these photographs of Liverpool in the 1970s and she put them together into a book and I was inspired by that.
"I like being creative. Since I was a kid I always had a way with words. I think people know the street persona of Leroy and they don't really know Leroy.
"I have actually made something out of a very bad situation that happened to me - I found the silver lining in that cloud."
Leroy Cooper's book Back in the Day Vol. 1 launches at the Bluecoat on October 30 at 6pm.
More information can be found on the Bluecoat's website .
Back in the Day Vol. 1 is available to buy at the launch event and online .
