Category: Pictures From Nowhere

Rediscovering The Fellow Travellers

This is a photograph of unknown origin, the type of thing some people call an orphan image, which I must have acquired at some point as part of a job lot of old photographs nobody wanted any more. There is, however, an almost painterly quality about it: someone has taken the time to pose the … Continue reading Rediscovering The Fellow Travellers

Good Wishes Yvette

To Edith, Good wishes : The Edith in question was my later mother-in-law, who, as a teenager in Liverpool, would stand outside the stage door at the Liverpool Empire and collect celebrity autographs. The sender of these sentiments and the subject of the postcard portrait was the actress Yvette Anning. Yvette was a successful singer … Continue reading Good Wishes Yvette

Murder Most Foul In Tenerife

My desktop calendar image today features a photograph I took ten years ago whilst visiting an ornamental garden in Tenerife. Why I took a photograph of the ticket office, I don't know - it was one of those instinctive shots that sometimes works .... and more often, doesn't. I like to think it did this … Continue reading Murder Most Foul In Tenerife

Shooting The Past

An old friend of mine recommended Stephen Poliakoff's "Shooting The Past" (and even better, sent me the DVD through the post), and I have been watching and enjoying it over the past few nights. What struck a particular chord with me was the ability to love photographs for their own sake, not because they feature … Continue reading Shooting The Past

Making My Mind Up About AI

I still can't make my mind up about AI. Artificial intelligence (AI) colourising programmes are all the rage: smart little apps where you can feed a monochrome image in at one end, and a beautifully realistic full-colour rendition emerges from the other end. To be honest, sometimes it is beautiful, sometimes realistic and sometimes it … Continue reading Making My Mind Up About AI

With A Little Help From A Friend

This is the outcome of yet another late-night, malt-whisky induced, Photoshop adventure. The starting point was a rather tattered little print from an old photograph album. The album contained thirty or forty prints of entirely unknown origin, which I bought off eBay for less than the price of a cup of tea in a coffee … Continue reading With A Little Help From A Friend

As Brief As The Click Of A Shutter

Another plunge into the pool of the unknown. Somehow I acquired an album of photographs from the 1920s and 30s. Photographs of people I don't know in places I have never been. Photographs that captured an instant in time, which eventually faded into a memory and then was lost forever. Not quite forever: this tiny … Continue reading As Brief As The Click Of A Shutter

Photo-Me, Victoria

Some people say that photographs today are as cheap as chips. This is untrue, as anyone who has been to a fish and chip shop recently will know: a bag of chips can set you back the best part of £2. Photographs, captured on smart phones and shared with friends are essentially free goods, and … Continue reading Photo-Me, Victoria

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