I took this photo in Halifax over 50 years ago. Then it was soot, steam and slubbing: grey mills against a grey background. Now it's all serviced offices and digital capabilities - not a dyed mixed fibre in sight.
Month: December 2023
Grain
This digital malarkey is all very well and good, but I miss grain. I know you can press a Photoshop button and get false grain, but it's a pale shadow of real grain - the creative offspring of a film too fast and an exposure too reckless. Grainy negatives transformed hapless snappers into the George … Continue reading Grain
Stone History
Few history books compare with a Yorkshire stone wall. There is everything there, from the sandstone of ancient rivers and streams to the carved geometry of hillside stone quarries. There's sculptured trimmings of fine country houses and there's ingrained soot of mills and factories. All children should spend at least one day of their school … Continue reading Stone History
It’s Halifax
I must have taken the original photograph about thirty years ago, although this version of it dates from last night. It's a familiar scene: a mixture of concrete and stone, cast iron and barbed wire, chapels and mill chimneys, It's Halifax.
Keep Still
This photograph comes from the collection put together by my fathers' cousin, Ivy Burnett. She was born in 1906 so she may have been part of this gathering which looks as though it dates from the early 1920s. The faces are fascinating: the studied expressions were a necessity of slow shutter speeds. In every crowd, … Continue reading Keep Still
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