Author: Alan Burnett

Walking The Streets Of Stoke

To the best of my recollection, it was fifty years ago when I took this photograph. It was the early 1970s, and I was at university at Keele in Staffordshire. Most weekends were spent either in London, where my soon to be wife was at university, or back in Halifax where we both came from. … Continue reading Walking The Streets Of Stoke

Two Characters In Search Of A Story

This has to be one of the strangest photographs in my family collection. I have no idea who the couple are, but they undoubtedly fit somewhere on my family tree as I seem to have inherited two, quite different, photographs of the same couple from different sources. The second photograph - which came to me … Continue reading Two Characters In Search Of A Story

Back Home

I've been back home a week from my pram-pushing excursion to the snowy Dolomites, and for one reason or another I don't seem able to settle into a routine. Even my desk-top calendar was left uncreated. Time for a hard reset, and what better way to celebrate being back home than with one of the … Continue reading Back Home

The Acme Of Perfection In Pierrotic Entertainment

I inherited this photograph from my Auntie Annie and Uncle Harry. During the late twenties and early thirties, Uncle Harry "trod the boards" as a member of a touring concert party - "The Silhouettes". Harry was the featured "pianist and tenor vocalist", and that is Harry, second from the right, with his wavy hair blowing … Continue reading The Acme Of Perfection In Pierrotic Entertainment

From Alpine Pram-Pushing To The Age Of Snaps

So here we are, a new month, and safely returned from a week in the Dolomites pushing a pram up a mountainside. Alpine pram-pushing is still a relatively new sport, and there was a possibility that we might have been chosen for the British team for the Winter Olympics, but a couple of unfortunate falls … Continue reading From Alpine Pram-Pushing To The Age Of Snaps

Filling Up

Let's travel back in time. It was the mid 1960s and I was earning a little extra money whilst still at school by working in the local petrol station in Northowram. This was before the days of self-service, so my job was to go out and fill the cars up with petrol. Occasionally I would … Continue reading Filling Up

Pablo Picasso, The Glass Of Beer And A Cubist Fence

I have suitcases full of old photographs, acquired from here, there, and endless market stalls: lost and unwanted prints of people long forgotten and places long gone. My escape route from grim reality is to delve into these collections, and befriend one of the anonymous subjects. As a pastime it is relatively harmless, less challenging … Continue reading Pablo Picasso, The Glass Of Beer And A Cubist Fence

Liberty

Forcing forward in the spirit of liberty or getting bogged down in the mud of history: today's calendar image dates back to 1982 and the Yorkshire Miners' Gala Parade in Doncaster. Around the corner was the miners' strike and changes beyond the imagination of those valiant banner-pushers.

Thrills In Halifax

The basis of today's image is a photograph I took in the mid 1960s at Halifax Charity Gala in Manor Heath Park. The thrills were provided by the noise, the crowds, the smell of candy floss and deep fried chats .... and a waltzer.