Peter Carr tells Laura Davis about his work and the city that inspired award- winning photography
THE brief is simple: Get a photograph of the fireworks display at Liverpool’s Capital of Culture opening ceremony.
The problem is this: Peter Carr is scared of heights. Not the sort of fear you can get over by swallowing hard or gritting your teeth, but proper knee-knocking, palm-sweating terror that makes you want to hurl yourself to the ground and cling on until your knuckles turn white.
But a good photo opportunity should not be missed, he considers, and so he finds himself standing on the top of the Radio City Tower trying to appreciate his luck at having surely the best view of the celebrations in the entire city.
"I get a little dizzy looking down two flights of stairs," says the 30-year-old, recalling the moment back in January 2008. "Being 440ft off the ground, in the dark, on top of a tower wasn’t exactly a good Friday night out in my book. But I reminded myself that the photo was worth it.
"The view – just wow. I couldn’t believe how beautiful Liverpool looked. My fear of heights literally went out the window because that view was incredible.
"The technicians had trouble getting on to the roof. One way involved climbing a ladder and wandering around in a dark room hoping you didn’t stumble out and off the roof. The other way was lifting a heavy metal trapdoor up and climbing out into total darkness.
"I was incredibly lucky and the kind BBC camera operator let me use his open window. It saved a lot of hassle as it was quite windy up there and that would have ruined all the photos."
Peter posted the resulting image on his blog, Vanilladays.com, which has just won the Best European Photoblog 2008 in the international Photoblog Awards against steep competition.
