In the days before smartphone selfies, many personal photographic archive would be populated by "Walking Snaps". Professional photographers would line seaside promenades and take random shots of passing visitors, and prints would later be displayed in shop windows and be available for purchase. There is a wonderful naturalness about such photos - as in this … Continue reading Walking Snaps
Category: Family Photographs
Priceless
I've spent a fair amount of my life taking photographs, and whenever I am tempted to question whether I would have been better off doing something else, I look at photographs like this one. It's far from being a great photograph; it's badly cropped and full of distracting shadows. But it's my father, and it's … Continue reading Priceless
Baby Burnett
My brother sent this photograph to me the other day - in my role as "the Burnett family historian" - suggesting it was either me or him. I tried doing a facial recognition analysis based on the rest of my family photos and it suggested it was a young Aunty Miriam (which it clearly isn't). … Continue reading Baby Burnett
Mystery Date
This photograph was part of a collection of family photos. The only clue as to the subject is a date stamped on the back, 6th January 1929, and the name of the studio where it was taken, Jerome. Could it be my mother? The dates fit, and there was a branch of Jerome's in Bradford. … Continue reading Mystery Date
That Magnificent Girl In Her Flying Machine
This is a wonderful photograph of my father's cousin, Ivy Burnett. She was born in Birmingham in 1906, and this photograph must have been taken when she was three or four. The great craze at the time was the new flying machines, and many photographic studios would have mock-up sets for sitters to use. Thus … Continue reading That Magnificent Girl In Her Flying Machine
Needing A Measure
My mother's uncle, the splendidly named Fowler Beanland, was a great bowling enthusiast, and this is one of his photographs. It has a caption - Bowling At Devonshire Park, Keighley - but no date. I know that he lived, worked - and bowled - up in Cumbria in the early years of the twentieth century, … Continue reading Needing A Measure
The Young Photographer
By chance, this photograph has reached the top of my "old photos to scan and index pile". A detailed examination reveals that I was a budding photographer well over 70 years ago (yes, that's me in the middle). It also reminds me that today is my brother's birthday (that's him on the left). Happy birthday, … Continue reading The Young Photographer
Random Art
A photo of my Aunty Miriam and Uncle Frank (how can you go swimming in the sea while smoking a cigarette?) and some unknown child. There's a Georges Seurat feel about the scene, and it perfectly illustrates how random old photographs can become works of art in their own right.
Strictly Ballroom
This is the photograph that my Uncle Frank and Auntie Miriam sent around to all their friends at Christmas 1938. It's a studio shot and I've no evidence that they were committed ballroom dancers. I may be doing them an injustice and it may be that many of the sprung ballroom floors of pre-war Bradford … Continue reading Strictly Ballroom
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