Welcome to the Website of Alan Burnett: writer, blogger, collector of old photographs, and devotee of all things pointless and inconsequential.
Developments
This map may not mean much to most people, but it shows Northowram, the village where I grew up. It is dated 1920, although it may be based on data from a decade earlier. What is surprising is not the amount of development in the past 70 years, but how much occurred in the 30 years between the map’s publication and the 1950s, when I was growing up in the village.
Keep reading
Images Are Magical
For as long as I can remember, I have been in love with images. They offer the ultimate freedom of expression and interpretation, allowing you to explore a moment, place, emotion, or…
Guess The Building
Here’s a fun diversion for a miserable Monday morning: take a photograph of a famous Calderdale building, ask a friendly AI bot to turn it into an architectural drawing, and then ask…
Neoplasticism And Halifax Borough Market
The Dutch painter Piet Mondrian was one of the founders of the art movement known as Neoplasticism. His palette was limited to the three primary colours – red, blue, and yellow -…
The End Of The Film
I like to think that, when Bill Brandt walked up Old Lane in Halifax in 1937, he took his famous Snicket in Halifax photo. He then climbed to the top…
Halifax – New York – Halifax
Where can you find Halifax in New York? The answer is on the fifth floor of the Museum of Modern Art on West 53rd Street. There, you will find a…
In The Steps Of Genius
Old Lane in Halifax was the setting for two of the finest photographs of the twentieth century. The fourth frame on my forty-year-old strip of negatives is my rather mediocre…
