This photograph of Elland from Long Wall dates back well over 100 years, but it is still a view that most people familiar with the town will recognise. The tramlines are long gone and the mills are long abandoned. The biggest change, however, is the one that is always noticeable when you compare old photographs … Continue reading Long Wall, Elland : It’s The Trees
Fed Up
You know the feeling: you've been sat there at least an hour while he has been messing about with that camera of his, poking bellows, fiddling with plates, head hidden under a black cloth. And it's not as though you have nothing better to do - that oak table won't polish itself and there is … Continue reading Fed Up
The Swinging Sixties – On Godley Bridge
Most people of my generation can look back to the swinging sixties with memories of rock and roll plus or minus the usual accompaniments. It appears, however, that I spent the decade standing on top of Godley Bridge taking photographs of an ever-changing Halifax. Here's yet another from 1966.
Life On Board
Having just returned from a fortnight on board a ship travelling around the Caribbean, I chanced upon an old photograph I took 40 years ago on board, I suspect, a cross channel ferry. I decided to let loose artificial intelligence on the original, slightly boring, negative, and this is what it came up with. It's … Continue reading Life On Board
Home
I'm home again. All that travelling is very nice: good for the soul and good for the spirit, but it isn't home. It isn't Yorkshire stone, Yorkshire mills and Yorkshire monuments. It isn't rain-rich trees and smoke-grained walls and folk that share a heritage. It isn't Halifax.
Caribbean Memories
Photographs are memories fixed onto paper, or should I say in this modern age, fixed onto a computer or smartphone screen. We're back from holiday and I have brought with me a new stock of memories which will join the 93,786 already residing on my hard drive. One or two might make my way onto … Continue reading Caribbean Memories
Halifax Town Hall
There is, of course, nothing "natural" about black and white photographs - they are about as fake as a Trumpian truth. They do however - B&W photos, not Trump - allow you to concentrate on shapes and lines and not get distracted by the extravagance of colour. Thus, the splendid Halifax Town Hall from Broadway … Continue reading Halifax Town Hall
No Escape
I took this photograph on Akroyd Place, Halifax. There clearly is no escape. Almost seventy years ago, just behind this building, there were some old swimming baths which we would be taken to, by bus, from our Junior School for swimming lessons. At the time, not being able to swim, I used to dread these … Continue reading No Escape
Chapman’s Bike
The photograph forms part of a box full of family photographs that may (or may not) feature the family of my grandfathers' brother, Albert Burnett (1884-1963). On the back of the photograph is written: "Mr Chapman, 2 Maze Street, Barton Hill". Barton Hill is part of the modern-day city of Bristol. I have absolutely no … Continue reading Chapman’s Bike
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