I don't know about you, but I seem to be surrounded by adverts. The magazines that drop through my letter-box seem to be almost exclusively adverts for dentists, plasterers and barbers. If I attempt to reach out to the rest of the world via the wonders of social media, my browsing is constantly interrupted by … Continue reading Scented Ink And Typewritten Confessions
Month: July 2021
It Wouldn’t Do For Mrs Read
Vintage picture postcards sent during the great postcard craze of the first decade of the twentieth century not only provide us with a picture of the physical landscape of our towns and villages at this transformative moment in time, but they also provide us with an insight into the everyday lives of the ordinary people … Continue reading It Wouldn’t Do For Mrs Read
Ding, Dong, Bell
Ding, dong, bell, Pussy’s in the well. Who put her in? Little Johnny Flynn. And, meanwhile, Little Alan Stout simply walked past and took a photograph.
Home 5 : Halifax In The Monochrome Age
These days you can get Artificial Intelligence to add colour to old black and white photos, but if you tried it with my picture from 50+ years ago, it would never get it right. It would make the grass green when, in fact, it was a dirty seaweed colour, the stone would be rich and … Continue reading Home 5 : Halifax In The Monochrome Age
Dog-Eared Days
Like memories, old photographs age. They physically fade, get scratched, bent, dog-eared: they interact with life. So when we look back at old photographs we see blurred memories of dog-eared days. Was my fathers’ hair ever that long, was my brother ever that young? But what of the digital generations; those reared on pixel counts … Continue reading Dog-Eared Days
Away 2 : Boating Under The Pier
Boating under the pier is prohibited. So is swimming in the birdbath, cycling down the drainpipe, and painting your toenails in the coal cellar. But, when liberty returns to the world, we will be able to board cruise ships for trips under the great piers of Britain.
The Kids These Days
You can't look at the papers these days without seeing it: pointless vandalism, violence, murder. The kids these days - with their social media and lives of material comfort. It was never like that when I was young, back in the 1950s when there was national service, discipline in home and school, and policemen still … Continue reading The Kids These Days
Found 1 : Walking With Confidence
FOUND 1 : The joy of found photographs is that, whilst they provide a visual superstructure, you are free to construct your own backstory on their framework. It’s like an exercise in painting by numbers; where motives, emotions, and destinies are the colours available.
Home 4 : Stone And Sweat
Halifax in the 1970s. Carpet mills rub sticky shoulders with toffee factories, and there isn’t a nail bar in sight. The colourful Quality Street images were for tin lids: these streets were cobbled in stone and sweat.
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