A family sat outside a cottage relaxing and listening to music streaming from a wind-up gramophone. It's a classic "found photo" - dripping with detail and asking more questions than any government census form. We'll never get answers, but that doesn't matter: sit back and enjoy the music.
Category: Pictures From Nowhere
Life Preservers
I can never get over the ability of old photographs to capture and preserve life. This photo was probably taken during World War II. I have no idea who the subject was, but that doesn't matter. That moment of introspection, that moment when the wind caught her hair, will live as long as images are … Continue reading Life Preservers
The Maid, Unknown
Background Colour
Bowls And Bookends
Questions From The Big Album
Another of the photos from that "Big Album" I bought a couple of months ago. This, like so many of the photos, is almost like a still from a movie, a plot half resolved, a story waiting to be fully told. Who is the man looking on from the back, what is he holding in … Continue reading Questions From The Big Album
The Imaginary Archaeologist
I like to think of myself as an archaeologist of images (or an imaginary archaeologist if you prefer). I like nothing better than digging up old pictures, dusting them off, and bringing them back to life to see what they can tell us about times gone by. We are not talking about the equivalent of … Continue reading The Imaginary Archaeologist
After The Rain
I recently acquired a lovely old 1904 album of photographs taken in and around the Scottish village of Brig o' Turk. Despite the age of the photos, you are not drawn into the usual "then and now" comparisons: as far as I can tell, little has changed. It is the captions that provide the time … Continue reading After The Rain
Stirling Scan
What better way to spend Sunday than to walk down King Street in Stirling. On the left are the offices of the Stirling Journal and on the right is the Golden Lion Hotel, and in the distance, the imposing Athenaeum building. The walk started ninety-odd years ago when someone took a photo of the scene, … Continue reading Stirling Scan
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