As I scan my way through a strip of old negatives, I am constantly amending decisions I have made about when and where some of the photographs were taken. Many of these negatives are over fifty years old, and over the years they have gathered their own collection of scratches, dust spots and blemishes. I … Continue reading A Walk Down Russel Street
Month: May 2023
As Was
In those days, if you were going to have your photograph taken, you would get out your Sunday best, your chapel suits and parlour dresses. You’d wash your faces, comb your hair, and smile against a studio backdrop. Not this family, however. THIS WAS LIFE AS IT WAS.
The Classic British Seaside
I acquired this old print from somewhere or other. I don't know who took the original photo, when they did so, or where it was. At a guess I would say somewhere in Britain in the 1920s. It's such a wonderful composition - a scene that shouts out the classic British Seaside.
Man At A Bus Stop (The AI Wars)
I received an invitation to give Adobe Firefly - their new Artificial Intelligence generated creative system - a try, and at the same time I was trying to work out what to do with a rather tired old photograph I took almost sixty years ago. The photograph was taken in Halifax and shows a bus … Continue reading Man At A Bus Stop (The AI Wars)
That Look, That Question
This is a version of a photograph I took back in 1966. It wasn't a particularly good photograph from a technical perspective when I took it, and it hasn't improved with time. It is out of focus, indifferently composed, and of marginal interest as a subject. I can neither remember where exactly in Halifax it … Continue reading That Look, That Question
Halifax Piece Hall
The last of the "Sketches of Halifax" published in the Illustrated London News of the 5th August 1882 is, appropriately enough, a sketch of what is now the town's most celebrated building - the Piece Hall. When the ILN artist visited the Piece Hall back in 1882, he found a building that was in decline. … Continue reading Halifax Piece Hall
Half A Life Ago
It was Manchester. It was half a life ago. I can't even remember what I was doing in Manchester on a rainy night, other than taking photographs. But part of me remembers framing the shot, keeping the camera steady, hoping that the lights would work - remembers it as though it was yesterday and not … Continue reading Half A Life Ago
The First Tram In Space
1909 Postcard : Free School Lane, Halifax (AB Collection) This is another old view of a road I knew so well. I used to walk down from school and then take a short cut from Clover Hill Road to Well Head and then the Bus Station for the bus home. There won't have been tram … Continue reading The First Tram In Space
Fire In Halifax (1968)
I came across a fire near the bottom of Hanson Lane by chance one day back in 1968, when I was walking into town from the Library. The photographs I took were just a record of a chance event, but over half a century later, they have become something of a social record of the … Continue reading Fire In Halifax (1968)
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