Gas Lights And Atmosphere

I know I have featured this particular image from my negative archives before, but I like it, so I will wheel it out again. I took it almost fifty years ago and it is one of the street around Rhodes Street, which ran (and, indeed, still runs) between Gibbet Street and Hopwood Lane in Halifax. When I get bored with the lockdown and watching re-runs of Coronation Street, I sometimes play “Spot The Difference”. I’m not searching for differences in physical buildings, but rather differences in feel and atmosphere. In this particular photograph it is the absence of cars and plastic wheelie bins that seems to stand out. There are people there, but the black and white film merges them into the background. And, of course, there is the gas light: that great cast-iron, sculptured delight of a shape: a welcome addition to any photograph.