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
Category: Family Photographs
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
Happy Birthday
I have spent some time trying to work out where I was when I took this photograph of my father forty or more years ago. My best guess is Haworth - always a favourite destination for family visits - and one of the steep staircases to an upstairs café on the main street. It would … Continue reading Happy Birthday
Letter To My Brother
Dear Rog, I think this is you, but I know from experience that you will be quick to correct me if I get the wrong place, the wrong year, or - heaven help us - the wrong person. My guess is that this is you on holiday in New Brighton around 1951. Let me know … Continue reading Letter To My Brother
Girl In A Wicker Bed
This rather poignant photograph is from a collection of family photos, but I can't recognise any of the three subjects. Needing a caption for it, I came up with "Girl In A Wicker Invalid Bed," which sound rather like the title of a Scandi-noir crime novel. I can't decide whether I should try and research … Continue reading Girl In A Wicker Bed
Brookfoot
In the mid 1960s, my brother bought an old Humber Keel barge called "Brookfoot" and converted it into a houseboat and studio. After doing the conversion work in Brighouse Canal Basin he then sailed it to the continent and around the canals and waterways of Europe. This photo is from the first time we saw … Continue reading Brookfoot
Great Aunt Ruth-Annie
As far as I know, this is a family member; it was part of a collection of family photographs handed down to me by my Auntie Annie. That means she is probably a Burnett - and she has that kind of broad, Yorkshire, slightly eccentric look that is common to our family. The photo carried … Continue reading Great Aunt Ruth-Annie
A Walk On The Pier
This picture of my grandparents walking along some seaside pier was taken, as far as I know, in the summer of the year peace returned to Europe. My grandmother looks almost penguin-like in her stance, but she is clearly happy. Enoch, my grandfather, looks distracted and strangely divorced from the seaside merriment. Within three years, … Continue reading A Walk On The Pier
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