Author: Alan Burnett

STREET SYMMETRY

I think I took this photo somewhere in the Stoke-on-Trent area and, if so, it will have been the early 1970s. It's the symmetry that is so eye-catching: it's almost as if the cars are involved in some strange maypole dance around that central telegraph pole.

THE CLEAR OUT

I remember coming across this scene whilst walking, up Southowram I think, well over 50 years ago. It was almost as though someone had set out the various objects with a composition in mind. I like to think that the pictures were priceless antiques. I left them there.

LEGO

I took this photograph of a Lego-inspired apartment block in the centre of Bristol over the weekend. At first sight it appears to be full of symmetry, but on closer examination the symmetry has been abandoned because - I assume - a shortage of the necessary Lego bricks.

THREE WHEELER

Three wheels are better than one - or, indeed, two. People of a certain age will remember the Green Cross Man (and those of a slightly younger age will remember him as Darth Vader!). This, however, is Cleethorpes in the 1980s - not a galaxy far, far away.

SUNNY VALE

I know these are supposed to be 1001 Photos I took before I died, but I can't be absolutely certain whether I took this or my brother did. It was the late 60s and Sunny Vale Pleasure Gardens were already in terminal decline - as this picture of one of the boating lakes shows.

19 March 2024 : Caramel Malt

Put on a new keg this evening. The blurb says it is a "go-to, have more than one, easy drinking IPA with floral and citrus aromas leading to a slightly sweet caramel malt character". Didn't quite catch that caramel malt character with the first pint - better have another one. Cheers.

22/1001 : Lazy And Negligent

A photograph from when we were living in Sheffield, some 40 years ago. Photoshop filters can easily create this type of look these days, but back then it was down to some lazy exposure and some negligent developing.

18 March 2024 : Concrete Curves

I spent a year in Birmingham - 1968/69 - and this is one of my photos from that time. What strikes me is the lengths the architects have gone to in order to achieve straight lines and sharp angles only to have the look compromised by the random curves of concrete staining.

21/1001 : Marks Up, Boars Head Down

I can't pretend that this is a good photo, but it is dripping with local nostalgia. It speaks of a time when policemen wore white raincoats and shoppers wore plastic rain hoods, when Marks was up town and the Boars Head was down below the market .... and the town hall was sooty!