My brother Roger sent me an email earlier today complementing me on the new Blog lay-out, and asking me to try and feature more of my old negatives and more old family photographs. I am able to kill two birds with one stone because, by chance, the next strip of negatives awaiting scanning features family … Continue reading Killing Three Birds With One Sea Urchin
Author: Alan Burnett
Drim Makes Your Nose Bigger
It was wartime: perhaps that's an excuse. Even so, what possessed any self-respecting advertising agency to come up with a product name like "Drim"?. Perhaps they thought that it was only two letters away from "Dream"; but likewise it is only one letter away from "Grim". "Become a Drim enthusiast today", proclaims the advertiser's copy. … Continue reading Drim Makes Your Nose Bigger
Between The Blurred Edges Of Time
This is such a busy photograph: a summer day on the English coast ninety years or so ago. It looks as though it has been taken from a raised height - a pier or a tower or some such. The camera couldn't quite cope with the wide-angle of the shot, and the edges blur into … Continue reading Between The Blurred Edges Of Time
A Second Look At Harry Elk
This is Harry Elk. We know that because someone has kindly written his name under his photograph. A date would have been nice, an address would have been better, perhaps even over generous. A quick check of census records results in nobody of that name with a date of birth around the turn of the … Continue reading A Second Look At Harry Elk
The Test Of Time
There is something slightly fake about this Victorian photograph: the quality of the print is a little too good, the line between the foreground and the background is just a little too sharp. I have examined the print carefully, and as far as I can make out, it is a genuine studio photograph from the … Continue reading The Test Of Time
Five From A Slaithwaite Stall : 5. Blue Days, Black Nights
The fifth and final £1 buy from the Slaithwaite antiques shop is an intriguing Edwardian studio photograph of a lady, some cushions and a telephone. Such photographs were common in the Edwardian age, but were normally featured on the picture postcards that were popular at this time. This is a print, not a postcard: and … Continue reading Five From A Slaithwaite Stall : 5. Blue Days, Black Nights
Five From A Slaithwaite Stall : 4. Enlarged To Any Size
There is something slightly reminiscent of that great British comedian, Les Dawson, about this fine Victorian lady, who is the subject of the fourth of my five studio portraits bought from a second-hand stall in Slaithwaite. The portrait is the work of James Wright who had studios in both the Lancashire mill town of Oldham … Continue reading Five From A Slaithwaite Stall : 4. Enlarged To Any Size
Five From A Slaithwaite Stall : 3. Lady Ormonde.
My third £1 purchase from the second hand stall in Slaithwaite was this delightful nineteenth century carte de visite from the London Studio of the society photographers William and Daniel Downey. William Downey (1829-1915) was born in South Shields and worked as a carpenter and boat builder before opening his first photographic studios in South … Continue reading Five From A Slaithwaite Stall : 3. Lady Ormonde.
Five From A Slaithwaite Stall : 2. In The Limelight
There used to be a a shop in Huddersfield called something like "Global International Mobile Phones And Repairs", which sounded all very grand, but was no more than a little chap in a broken down room with a counter made from a piece of wood balanced on two packing cases. Trades and industries that are … Continue reading Five From A Slaithwaite Stall : 2. In The Limelight
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