The true delight of old family photographs is that they can take you back in time, not just to the years of your youth, but to those impossibly distant times before you were born. Here is a photograph of a group of people posing in front of a large stone structure with a lighthouse in … Continue reading Half Formed Memories
Month: September 2024
Found In A Selfie
This "selfie" predates selfies by about 40 years. It's not really a selfie - it's me alright, but it was my brother who painted it back in 1972. Amongst those quickly drawn lines and those splashes of colour, I was to be found back then, and, I suppose, I am still to be found today.
The Indecisive Moment
A busy market scene in Halifax in the early 1970s. I seem to have taken several photos like this, probably in search of a Cartier-Bresson decisive moment. I never found it, but maybe came close to a few indecisive moments at the bacon counter.
Bridlington Grand National
It was twenty years ago today - and it's all the excitement of the Grand National, as the riders approach the finishing line. Except this is the Grand National in Bridlington, and the horses are powered by balls rolled into slots. Our horse didn't finish - I was too busy taking a photograph. Ah, the … Continue reading Bridlington Grand National
Fur Stoles And Soot-Black Buildings
This is how I remember Princess Street in Halifax. There was a degree of sophistication about the street; it was Halifax's answer to Knightsbridge. There were shops with exotic names and a hotel with AA rosettes. There were women with fur stoles and men wearing trilby hats. There were chrome headlights on black cars and … Continue reading Fur Stoles And Soot-Black Buildings
Questions From The Big Album
Another of the photos from that "Big Album" I bought a couple of months ago. This, like so many of the photos, is almost like a still from a movie, a plot half resolved, a story waiting to be fully told. Who is the man looking on from the back, what is he holding in … Continue reading Questions From The Big Album
Mills And Flats
There was a time when the mills were being abandoned and demolished, and new blocks of flats were built in their place. I must have taken this photograph 50 years ago at a time when Halifax was in transition. These days, the high-rise flats are being abandoned, and whatever mills remain are converted into housing. … Continue reading Mills And Flats
A Fibrous Forest
As a young man I briefly had a beard. Sadly, it never flourished and it resembled more of a mossy outcrop rather than the fibrous forest attached to the chin of the Victorian gent featured in this Carte-de-visite from my collection which dates from the 1870s
Inconsequential Photographs
You can't beat inconsequential photographs: photos without any great meaning or purpose. You can wander around them at leisure, stopping off to look at half a car here or a faded billboard there. You can ask questions without the need of answers - what is that train doing in the middle of the road? Uncle … Continue reading Inconsequential Photographs
alanburnett.com 