Ciara Leeming is used to telling stories. It’s what she’s done for years; talking to all kinds of people from right around the world.
But one of the most fascinating tales of her career actually materialised right on her doorstep just a few short weeks ago.
When COVID-19 struck Manchester in March and the region swiftly shuttered up, Ciara, a freelance journalist and photographer, was one of thousands left without any work on the table.
Craving a creative outlet, she opted to use her permitted hour of daily exercise a little differently.
Instead of simply going for a stroll around the block, Ciara decided she would scoop up her camera and snap the street during lockdown – curious to see how her fellow neighbours were coping.
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As spring turned unseasonably warm, Ciara boarded her bike – sometimes with her two young sons in tow – and headed out to record the residents of Levenshulme; all of whom stood behind glass away from the district’s sun-dappled streets.
It began as little more than a personal project; an anthology of photos that Ciara could look back on later down the line when life finally returned to normal.
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But within days of the first picture being taken, it snowballed into something much bigger.
Ciara ended up shooting more than 260 portraits of her neighbours over six weeks between April and May – capturing a collection of images that showed an entire community calibrating itself to a quarantine lifestyle.
Her ‘Levy Lockdown’ photos offer an illuminating snapshot of joyful defiance in truly testing times – and now the collection is set to feature in print.
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More than a hundred backers have already raised over £3,600 to cover publication costs – with Ciara’s book set to feature an introductory text followed by frame after frame of wide smiles beaming out from within windows.
“The photos were quite organic; I definitely didn’t set out to do 260 portraits!” Ciara tells The Manc.
“I just started on my street; it began just as a little project for me, really.
“But soon I saw that people liked it, and I branched out to tell others and shared it on the Facebook group.
“Then people started coming to me.
“It really grew after that. I was amazed it got so big.”
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Rainbows, flowers and heartwarming messages of hope have adorned the windows across Levenshulme throughout lockdown, and in order to make the project as representative of the local community as possible, Ciara attempted to reach further by doing some door-knocking.
This, she anticipated, might be tricky.
In Britain, we’re hardwired to shudder at the sound of an unknown visitor. Most of us will admit to feeling a mini jolt of panic in the seconds that follow the rat-tat-tat of the front door or jingle of the bell.
But when Ciara popped up to ask if her neighbours fancied taking part in the portraits, 90 per cent leapt at the chance.
Many didn’t even rush upstairs to fix their hair or makeup. They simply stood and smiled as Ciara clicked away.
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“I was taken aback by how people were so keen,” Ciara chuckles.
“That was really nice and refreshing. It was amazing to see how enthusiastic people were.
“Boredom might have played a part to be honest! Lockdown had been going on for a while by this point, and at least this was something a bit different and interesting.”
If the enthusiasm for the photos came as something of a surprise, the overall impact of the portraits – which exude positivity and togetherness – was not.
Levenshulme has changed a lot since Ciara settled in the region in 2004, experiencing the type of gentrification that has seen it dubbed “the new Chorlton”.
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Buildings have budged, streets have shifted and paths have parted. For better and for worse.
But the united spirit of Levenshulme hasn’t wavered an inch. And it’s there to see in every single one of these lockdown photos.
“It’s a very diverse community here in terms of class and ethnicity – it’s a super friendly and engaged community,” Ciara tells us.
“A lot of people here have a real passion for the area.
“We know all our neighbours, the kids play out on the street.
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“It’s really tight-knit here and I value that very much.”
Having lived in the area for more than a decade, Ciara already knew many of her neighbours before the shoot began.
But now it seems like she’s being recognised by half of Levenshulme.
“Lots of other people are saying hi to me now!” Ciara laughs.
There might be a few more greetings coming her way when the book is released later this year…
You can pre-order a copy of the amazing Levy Lockdown portraits book, learn more about the project, and/or make a donation by visiting Ciara’s kickstarter page here.
Feature
Taemin at AO Arena: Take the K-pop world’s ‘Advice’ – you need to watch him live
Thomas Melia
This time last month, South Korean star, SHINee and SuperM boyband member, Taemin showed Manchester the real meaning of ‘The Rizzness’. It was our first K-pop gig and won’t be our last.
Normally, if you ask me what I’m getting up to on a Tuesday night, I’d respond with the usual: “Nothing.” Ask me this random but eye-opening night back in March 2025, and I’d say, “Watching the ‘Ephemeral Glaze’ tour”.
Opening with a song labelled ‘Déjà vu’, ironically, felt from the truth, as the minute the performer stepped onto the stage, the whole crowd was watching what felt like an all-new spectacle come to life – even for some of the already inducted K-pop fans inside the AO Arena.
Following up with ‘Guilty’, I’d be lying if I told you we didn’t love this performance. It wasn’t overshadowed by that unbelievable grand opening either – if anything, it was even better.
A majestic pose from Taemin at AO Arena in Manchester, performing to a lively crowd.Credit: Audio North
This was a setlist that just keeps on giving: after this, ‘Advice’ greets our ears and fans erupt in various screams and cries, to which Taemin, 31, certainly appreciated.
It’s high energy through and through, as the next song, ‘Idea’, felt like the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle for those of us not so used to this kind of music, well and truly captivating the Manc crowd.
Closing what was merely his opening segment with this song was definitely a good ‘Idea’… (sorry).
Its title may draw from a comedic viral term used to describe someone with great flirting skills, a.k.a. ‘rizz’, but ‘The Rizzness’ is no laughing matter.
Fans caught on quickly, and as soon as the first note was pumped out into the arena, the atmosphere reached whole new heights and those familiar screams at an other-worldly pitch returned.
I never thought I’d see the day where AO Arena screamed, “You know I got the rizz, the rizzness”, but there’s a first time for everything, I guess.
Taemin and his dancers were electric at AO Arena.Credit: The Manc Group
Being from Korea, 31-year-old Taemin tried his best to communicate with the crowd throughout the night, taking breaks after back-to-back performances to gauge the audience’s reactions.
The South Korean superstar didn’t take long to warm up to the crowd and showed off his cheeky side, telling the arena, “Only 4 more songs” before finishing the sentence with “I lied”.
‘Criminal’ had me and the rest of Manchester weak in the knees; the choreography was flawless throughout, but this was a true highlight. Ending with ‘Say Less’, Taemin knew exactly what he was doing, putting a song that catchy right at the end, as this was all that replayed in my head on the train home.
Put it this way, we may still be relative newbies to the world of Korean pop music, but with another big name heading to Manchester, we’re definitely keen to find out more.
The best Manchester-based anime-style memes we’ve seen online as Ghibli craze takes over
Danny Jones
Now, the internet can be used for a lot of silly and pointless things – you might argue us sharing our favourite memes every morning is a prime example of that – but we have to admit, the second we saw a Manchester-inspired Studio Ghibli image on social media, we were hooked.
If you have absolutely no idea what we’re talking about, there is a current craze that has taken over the internet, which has seen recognisable memes and images recreated in the style of the iconic Ghibli anime films, created by legendary animator and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.
Once you’ve found one, you tend to start spotting them more and more frequently, and in the case of the chronically online like us, we’ve been inundated with them for weeks now.
People are using AIto create them in various different contexts, but it won’t surprise you to learn that our favourite Ghibli/anime memes are those based around Manchester. For example:
Bloody hell, the internet really is brilliant sometimes, isn't it? 😂 https://t.co/virpFx60u7
As it happens, this was the first and perhaps still the best we’ve seen to date, but it didn’t stop us from falling down an animated rabbit hole looking for others.
To be honest, we didn’t actually have to do much searching ourselves as they’re absolutely all over the algorithm at the minute, and have been for a good month or so.
‘Ghibli memes’ may be an overgeneralisation of what is a rather specific and famed art style, but this ongoing flood of anime-style cartooons is being created by users giving prompts to ChatGPT, the increasingly popular large language model (LLM) and AI tool.
Designed with OpenAI software, the artificial intelligence chatbot can do everything from write extensive study notes and flash cards to fixing blurry images, writing computer code, entire essays and quite literally countless other things.
In this instance, people are just reimagining moments from the zeitgeist and famous memes in this style by feeding the image to ChatGPT, along with an ‘in the style of Studio Ghibli’ prompt.
One for the Blues…And the Reds.All of these images have been designed using ChatGPT. (Credit: Eleventh Minute/centredevils via X)
Pretty cool, right?
You’ll find that footballer Twitter (sorry, X*), in particular, is absolutely full of fan accounts recreating iconic club scenes in the Miyazaki art style, giving their favourite players big ‘Chibi’ eyes (another unique aspect of anime) and so on.
It’s all just a bit of a laugh, after all; even we here at The Manc put ChatGPT to the test back in June 2023 and asked it to design ‘the perfect day out in Manchester’ – to varying degrees of success, we might add.
As ever with machine-learning, the more information you feed it, the better the result and although we know these are original pictures being reimagined, it still goes to show just how impressive and varied AI is becoming.
We’ve also enjoyed some that aren’t necessarily Manc but are quintessential British humour or simply more universal memes.
Exhibits E and F…
Even after all these years, we feel like we still see this in some context at least once a week – and it still makes us laugh.‘What a sad little life, Jane…’Credit: brandsynario (via Instagram)/No Context Brits (via X)
Despite these memes riding a real wave right now, the Ghibli portrait fad is just that; there are plenty of other aesthetics being toyed with, too.
Actually, it already has, as we’ve now started coming across people making action figure versions of themselves and/or famous people, full decked out with accessories inside blister packs and everything.
On the other hand, many people are understandably concerned about what this means for artists and although there is no substitute for genuine human expression, whatever form that may come in, lots of people are railing against it as the possibility of AI-based pop music has been posited.
With that in mind, maybe the best twist we’ve seen is our very own Stanley Chow subverting the trend and doing Ghibli stuff in his equally iconic style. We’ll take these geometric gems over computer-generated imitations any day.
For now, it’s just a bit of fun and we confess we’ve got some light entertainment out of it, but the increasing possibilities being thrown up by AI in terms of art do pose a lot more complex questions.
We’ll finish with one final example because let’s be honest, there’s only really one thing on our minds at the minute – at least until the summer finally rolls around…
Let us know if you’ve seen any other fun examples and what you make of the whole Ghibli meme trend down in the comments.
The Manc -
14th July 2020 
