Welcome to the Website of Alan Burnett: writer, blogger, collector of old photographs, and devotee of all things pointless and inconsequential.
A 1916 Girl
On the back of this sepia portrait of an unknown girl is a studio stamp that states: “W Buckley, Portrait Specialist, 28 August 1916, Regent Square, Blackpool.” There is something quite beautiful about the portrait – William Rawlinson Buckley was a celebrated Blackpool photographer – and something that is so resonant of the time. This, after all, is 1916: the girl may have been employed in one of the numerous munitions factories, and the men in her life will have been in…
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A Heated Basin
We are living through record heatwaves here in the UK at the moment, experiencing temperatures that make you want to find a cool stretch of water and take the plunge. I took…
A 1907 Poke
A “Facebook Poke” is defined as “a digital nudge or virtual greeting used to get a friend’s attention.” The equivalent 120 years ago was a postcard – sent, as it happens, to…
The Swinging Sixties
The summers of my youth, when the most avant-garde experience might have been listening to a trad-jazz combo in the park. And if the sun was shining, they might even hang their…
Bridge Art
There should be a special category of art for the work displayed on the metal panels that line endless railway bridges and other lumps of transport infrastructure in this country.…
Shibden Gate
There is always a temptation to submit images that don’t pass the pinpoint definition test – or that fail short of the standard for clarity and contrast – to some…
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