We hear a lot these days about the changing nature of town and city centres, but the centre of gravity of our conurbations has never been static. I took this photograph over fifty years ago from the waste land at the bottom of Woolshops in Halifax. Widespread demolition had already swept through the narrow streets, … Continue reading Home 10 : The Abattoir And Cart
Category: Calendar
Expectation And Warning
All photographs capture time: old photographs capture history. This is a random image from my "Lost and Found" box - I know neither man nor dog, neither time nor place. There was a pencilled caption on the reverse of the tiny print which said "D and Louchs", but which is which I have no idea. … Continue reading Expectation And Warning
Dividing Lines
People have always fought over Fixby. It's the Alsace-Lorraine of West Yorkshire, subject to an eternal power struggle between Halifax and Huddersfield. It was originally one of the townships of Halifax, but a state-sponsored land-grab in the 1970s saw most of it transferred to Huddersfield. An old dividing stone showing a clear demarcation between Huddersfield … Continue reading Dividing Lines
A Hazy Shade Of Summer
The power of this summer heatwave acts like some kind of Photoshop filter: bleaching the strength out of colours, blurring the distance into a hazy shade of summer.
Home 6 : A Bridge Too Far
The line went from Halifax Station to North Bridge Station via the Gas Works. At one time it carried people and goods to exotic places like Ovenden and Queensbury. It was closed in the 1950s and, thirty years later, the solid stone structure was demolished. It had become a bridge too far.
Another Week
Another week gone and nothing left to show for it but memories. Memories, however, are far the best things to leave behind ... memories and another stack of pages from my daily desk calendar.
Ding, Dong, Bell
Ding, dong, bell, Pussy’s in the well. Who put her in? Little Johnny Flynn. And, meanwhile, Little Alan Stout simply walked past and took a photograph.
Home 5 : Halifax In The Monochrome Age
These days you can get Artificial Intelligence to add colour to old black and white photos, but if you tried it with my picture from 50+ years ago, it would never get it right. It would make the grass green when, in fact, it was a dirty seaweed colour, the stone would be rich and … Continue reading Home 5 : Halifax In The Monochrome Age
Dog-Eared Days
Like memories, old photographs age. They physically fade, get scratched, bent, dog-eared: they interact with life. So when we look back at old photographs we see blurred memories of dog-eared days. Was my fathers’ hair ever that long, was my brother ever that young? But what of the digital generations; those reared on pixel counts … Continue reading Dog-Eared Days
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