Another week, another strip of old negatives to scan and rediscover. And these six take me to another city and another decade, as we find ourselves in Sheffield in the 1980s. I was no longer a young man when I took these photographs, and to me, it seems like only yesterday; but a quick calculation … Continue reading A Grainy Memory
Looking Old
When I go through my old negatives looking for dating evidence, I normally focus on things such as car types, tv aerials, or even dustbin designs. Sometimes, however, a scene just "looks" old, and that is the case with this photograph of the view looking towards Shibden Valley from Beacon Hill. In fact, it looks … Continue reading Looking Old
Malting Memories
One of my photographs from half a century ago taken, I think, from the appropriately named Gas Works Lane, in Elland. Many of the buildings, along with the gasometer, have now gone and the aroma of the maltings is just a distant memory.
Fashion Statement
Three girls on a pebbly beach. Whoever took this photograph captured a classic image without knowing about it.It became a small print, destined to fade into sepia age, pasted in an album, gradually forgotten and then left to make up the numbers in a job lot of old photos. Probably the 1940s, just possibly the … Continue reading Fashion Statement
On Baring My Soul
I've always quite fancied being a poet, but I am a little bit on the shy side. I've discovered the perfect solution: QR Code Poetry. You write your poem and turn it into a QR readable image. I can now bare my soul whilst hiding behind the bath towel of technology. Perfect.
Still Scanning After All These Years
As the summer rolls on and the lockdown rules out picnics on the beach, sangria parties in smokey Balearic nightspots, and wild swimming adventures in the Barents Sea, I am restricted to my quest to scan my garden. Whilst cutting the lawn today, I plucked this seeded stem out of the ground and subjected the … Continue reading Still Scanning After All These Years
Power To The People
Elland Power Station used to sit on the floor of the Calder Valley like a mucky residue, creating black shapes against a grey sky. It's been replaced now by a bright business park; all very clean and the slightest bit boring.
A Question Of Religion
I am fairly certain that I was stood on the corner of Lister Lane and Rhodes Street in Halifax when I took this photograph some 55 years ago. If you squint in the right direction you can just about match up the curved corner stones with the current view on Google StreetView. My question, however, … Continue reading A Question Of Religion
Dead Flower Head
A dead flower head. The stem and leaf thinks it's in the peak of health, but the flower has crumpled into a shadow of its former self; like a deflated brown paper balloon. On some of these mornings, I know how it feels.
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