Images of landmark sites in Manchester as they might look after an apocalypse have gone on display at an exhibition in the city.

The photo-realistic images of a nightmarish future are the creation of artist James Chadderton.

They depict city landmarks including Urbis, the Printworks and the Palace Theatre as they might look following a disaster.

They have gone on display at the Incognito Gallery in the Northern Quarter.

James said: “Trying to maintain a degree of realism was essential as I wanted the audience to be absorbed into that reality.

“The focus was to provide images of iconic areas of Manchester such as Urbis and the Palace Theatre in a derelict and eroded state as if involved in an apocalyptic event that somehow left the city lifeless and dissolving over potentially hundreds of years.”

James, who is an art tutor at a sixth form college, was inspired by nightmarish futuristic visions of movies such as Bladerunner, 28 Days Later and the Terminator.

His images were created by fusing traditional painting with photography and new media.

Many assume that his artwork depicts post-nuclear fallout, but James prefers to characterise them as ‘human devoid wastelands where the buildings have been left to decay.”

James’s symbolic post-apocalyptic picture of the site of the Hacienda nightclub, which features in the exhibition, was recently used by legendary Manchester musician Peter Hook and his band The Light as a record cover.

The exhibition at the Incognito gallery, in Stevenson Square, runs until January 4.

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