Vocabulary has always a tendency to lag behind technological progress - which is why we have a word for a merchant who deals in candles made out of sheep's intestines ("tallower" in case you are interested), but no word to adequately describe those people who use social media to tell you what they had for … Continue reading There Really Should Be A Word For It
Author: Alan Burnett
Negative Thoughts : Square Bales
This is a scan of a negative I took over fifty years ago, in the mid 1960s. I can date it because of the rest of the shots on the strip of negatives - but even if they had not been there, I would have some idea of the date by the shape of the … Continue reading Negative Thoughts : Square Bales
Lost Relatives Awaiting Collection
This is another photograph in my series "Pictures From Nowhere", which features photographs that have somehow come into my possession through fair means or foul. All I know about this particular orphan image is a date (which someone has kindly pencilled on the reverse) - 23 July 1946. It shows a splendid group gathered outside … Continue reading Lost Relatives Awaiting Collection
Having A Good Time
Walking In Torquay So what do we know about this photograph? We don't know who these two are, that's for sure: they appear in album of someone else's photographs, someone else's memories. We do know, however, that it was taken in the quintessential English holiday resort of Torquay. And we have a date - 1928: … Continue reading Having A Good Time
Experiments With A DNA Camera
Stories abound about so-called primitive tribes who would shun photographers in the belief that cameras can capture the spirit of the photographers' subjects. As with many such stories, it is of dubious veracity: but if such tribes ever did exist I have a degree of sympathy with their beliefs. Nothing comes close to capturing the … Continue reading Experiments With A DNA Camera
Why Not Have It Enlarged?
What a wonderful invention: a machine that takes your photograph and weighs you at the same time. And even better - it prints the resulting weight on the photograph so that you have something to remind you of that day you had an extra large portion of fish and chips, not to mention the knickerbocker glory.
On Discovering Nita In My Garage
This signed photograph of Nita Croft turned up during the garage clearance. It was something of a surprise to realise that the lovely Nita had been sitting in my garage for twenty-five years without me realising it. Born in 1902, Nita Pycroft shortened her name and took to the stage, upon which she enjoyed a … Continue reading On Discovering Nita In My Garage
20 Images : The Man With The Self-Changing Gear
Advert From 1931 Pageant Of Bradford Programme My life continues to be dominated by the Herculean task of clearing the garage of thirty years of accumulated rubbish, so that a new door can be installed in ten days time. I have managed to dispose of a library's worth of books, a china shop's worth of … Continue reading 20 Images : The Man With The Self-Changing Gear
20 Images : 3. Booth Denton – The Grocer Of Mirfield
Booth Denton of Knowle, Mirfield If you spend your life digging in the genealogical allotments of ephemera, you learn to welcome an unusual name. You can keep your "John Smiths" and your "Tom Browns" : give me a "Roderick Trencheon-Philpotts" any day. Or, more specifically, give me a Booth Denton - which is the name … Continue reading 20 Images : 3. Booth Denton – The Grocer Of Mirfield
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