Welcome to the Website of Alan Burnett: writer, blogger, collector of old photographs, and devotee of all things pointless and inconsequential.
Bank Holiday Monday
What better way to celebrate a Bank Holiday Monday than to stride across the green fields of Yorkshire, leaving the smoke-filled streets behind, and then scale the gorse-clad valley sides in search of a perfect English pub and a foaming pint of ale? Or, alternatively, you can retreat to the safety of your room – free from UV rays and stinging wasps – and tidy up a 56-year-old photograph of the green fields of Yorkshire (the Shibden Valley, actually).
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Shared Art
These days, if you buy shares in a company, the best you can expect is a pro-forma PDF digital certificate – with all the elegance of a breeze block. Back in the…
Waiting For The Cable To Drop
This is an old photograph, picked at random from the boxes and drawers of old photographs I live with. There is nothing special about it – I have no idea who Mac…
Temple To Steam
While we’re on the subject of ancient monuments (see yesterday’s post), what about this fine obelisk? Built as a temple to Steam, the god of industry, it was worshipped by thousands of…
Them And Us
Down south, if they find a load of standing stones, they declare it an ancient monument and charge people £30 to look at it. Up north, we simply assume they’re…
Waves And Hills
I think this photograph of mine of Elland dates from the early 1980s, but I can’t remember the exact date (oh, how I wish we had metadata back in those…
An Illustration
At what point does a photograph become an illustration? I’m not sure of the answer, but it probably has something to do with tones and lines. This illustration of Halifax…
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