Category: Family Photographs

Standing Firm And Staying Still

I was trying to explain to someone the other day why I have always steered clear of moving images. Ever since I first picked a camera up back in the sepia days of my youth, people have always seemed to see still images as a poor second-cousin to the magic of moving pictures. At first … Continue reading Standing Firm And Staying Still

Shape

Sometime, all you need is a shape. Detail is superfluous when outlines tell a story. This is my mother, Gladys, fifty-five years ago. I probably mis-judged the back-lighting, but I like to think that I was concerned only with capturing a shape.

Unknown And Superb

This is one of a batch of old photographs which was sent to me through the post. There was no indication as to who sent them, but the envelope also contained the funeral programme of one of my wife's cousins. I can only assume that the two children featured in this particular photograph are members … Continue reading Unknown And Superb

AB With FT

AB WITH FT Before digital time stamps were invented, you had to rely on more indirect means to date photographs. Thanks to a newspaper headline about the launch of the Serious Fraud Office, I can confidently say that this photograph of me was taken in April 1988. I seem rather relaxed, sat in one of … Continue reading AB With FT

Basin Street Blues

A determination to catch the last of the late summer sun took me to Brighouse Canal Basin yesterday, and a determination to scan my way through all my old photographs also took me to the same place - albeit fifty-three years earlier. The canal basin was looking glorious in the sunshine. A few late flowers … Continue reading Basin Street Blues

Colouring The Family Tree 2

Once you become addicted to colourising your old family photographs it is difficult to know when to stop. Here are a selection of my old family photographs that have been through the colourising machine this week. One of my favourite photographs of the Liverpool Usher sisters. The one on the right is my late mother-in-law, … Continue reading Colouring The Family Tree 2

Colouring The Family Tree

These days, cars can drive themselves down motorways, computers can land aeroplanes, and algorithms can determine future accademic success.... and nifty little smartphone apps can add colour to your dead grandmothers' face. The technology is there, but should we use it just because it is available? I must confess, I can't decide: in some ways … Continue reading Colouring The Family Tree

Adding A Little Colour To The Family Tree

You know what it's like. It's late. You've been scanning some old family photographs. You're tired, but not quite ready for bed just yet. And anyway, there are a still a couple of millimetres of that 10 year old Laphroaig left in the glass. It would be a shame to rush it. It's important to … Continue reading Adding A Little Colour To The Family Tree

I Am A Rock, I Am An Island

The last two frames of the strip of negatives from the winter of 1964/65 reveal how I can be so sure of both the date and the place. They show the destination of my walk, which was to my brothers' new house in East Street, Lightcliffe. I may be neither a rock, nor an island … Continue reading I Am A Rock, I Am An Island