Photographs only came along only once in a while. This was the age before smart phone selfies, an age when a portrait was an event. An event to get out your Sunday best and put on your best pin and watch chain.
Month: July 2018
The Great Stainland Water Fight
Whenever I walk passed a pub - or better still sit down with a pint in a pub - I can't stop thinking about the tales the building has to tell. What love or what loss, what joy or what sadness took place in such buildings? When I walked by the Bull and Dog in … Continue reading The Great Stainland Water Fight
Nellie, Empsie And A Carroll Connection
This fine old vintage postcard dates from the first decade of the twentieth century and features photographs of Nellie and Empsie Bowman, a couple of stage and music hall stars of the era. Nellie and Empsie, along with a third sister Isa, were the daughters of Charles Andrew Bowman, a music teacher, and Helen Holmes. … Continue reading Nellie, Empsie And A Carroll Connection
Crouching Photographer, Hidden Dog
I reach into an old box of 35mm colour slides and pull out three random slides for scanning, all of which date from the 1960s. The first was taken in the Autumn of 1968 and shows my bedroom at Fircroft College in Birmingham complete with Cuban posters and a picture of Karl Marx that was … Continue reading Crouching Photographer, Hidden Dog
Bookmarks For The Summer Of ’18
Photographs are the bookmarks of life: they are there to remind us of passages that are important for one reason or another. I have a feeling that there will be all sorts of reasons why I remember the summer of 2018, but, for the moment, it will be the weather. Even if it now rains … Continue reading Bookmarks For The Summer Of ’18
Albert And Gladys Take To The Continent
Our Sepia Saturday theme image this week features a group of people sat around a table in Norway. My submission features a couple of people sat around a table in France. The people are, in fact, my mother and father, Albert and Gladys Burnett, and the photographs dates back to 1962 and a family holiday … Continue reading Albert And Gladys Take To The Continent
Pigeons In Ruperra
This is an intriguing little photograph (just six by four centimetres) from a tiny album of photographs I bought on what we in Yorkshire call t'internet. All the photographs date from 1931 and 1932 and were taken in and around Ruperra Castle in Wales. At the time, the castle was owned by Evan Morgan, 4th … Continue reading Pigeons In Ruperra
Mechanical History
During the 19th Century there was a great tradition of building Mechanic's Institutes in the towns and villages of the industrial north of England. Not only were these centres for adult education, cultural enrichment, and political debate; they were also fine buildings in their own right. A small number still pursue their original function, but … Continue reading Mechanical History
Faces From Nowhere
This isn't really a "Picture from Nowhere" because I know it is a photograph of children at South Crosland Junior School in Huddersfield and, I would guess, it was taken in the nineteen forties or early fifties. They are, however, faces from nowhere - young faces that went somewhere in life.
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