Anne Worthington is a documentary photographer and author from Blackpool. Her work has been part of the British Culture Archive since 2020, and her photographs of East Manchester in the early 2000s feature in the BCA touring exhibition A Woman’s Work. Her practice often focuses on the pressures placed on working-class towns at the turn of the century, recording the people and places shaped by social change, political neglect, and shifting local identities.

Anne:
“I was asked to go to Burnley just after the riots in June 2001. The summer of 2001 saw violence across parts of the north that began in Oldham before reaching Harehills, Burnley, and Bradford. Years of housing segregation, poor investment, and rising tension had created deep divides, and whole streets were seen as off-limits depending on where you were from. When I arrived, the town felt shaken but not startled. People told me they’d seen it building for a long time.”

The disturbances of 2001 were a turning point for several northern towns. Official reports later highlighted failures in local policy, unequal access to opportunity, and the way communities had been encouraged to live separately for decades. Worthington’s photographs respond to this moment. Instead of focusing on the violence itself, she recorded everyday life in Burnley and East Manchester in the months that followed, showing how people carried on, rebuilt, and found ways to navigate the aftermath.