BOTTOMS

I’m not sure what I intended the focal point of this photograph, taken forty years ago, to be. It probably was the unseen event that was monopolising all their attention, but, in retrospect, it has become the spectral seagull in the sky and the curious reflection in the crash helmet.

WAITING FOR THE TRAIN

SHEFFIELD MIDLAND STATION (1983) Alan Burnett Another of my old photographs which I filed away into obscurity forty years ago, but return to now because I have nothing better to do. It is out of focus and blurred, but so are my memories. Don't ask me to say why I like it, I can't tell … Continue reading WAITING FOR THE TRAIN

A Different Frame Of View

This is one of my photographs from forty or fifty years ago. The building is, of course, instantly recognisable: it is what was then Halifax Parish Church, and is now Halifax Minster. The frame will not be as instantly recognisable: the railway viaduct that carried the line from Halifax Station to North Bridge has been … Continue reading A Different Frame Of View

Negative Vibes In Elland

When the modern world is getting you down, you can always climb aboard your chemical-powered time machine and revisit former times. The chemicals in question include dimezone, phenidone, sodium hydroxide, and sodium thiosulfate - otherwise known as photographic developers and fixers! - and you don't even need to reopen the bottles. Just take an old … Continue reading Negative Vibes In Elland

Market Stalls, Halifax 1981

This new image is based on a photograph I took forty years ago in Halifax. It was taken in the Piece Hall when that fine building was going through one of its early transitions from redundant wholesale marketplace to open-air retail market. It was busy and purposeful, but the location was of secondary importance: the … Continue reading Market Stalls, Halifax 1981

Big Wheels Keep On Turning

The 1980s were a difficult years for me in some ways. Over the course of decade, I was gradually losing my hearing, and gradually learning to live with the knowledge that it would not be returning. In some ways it was like going into a personal lockdown. At the time we were living in Sheffield … Continue reading Big Wheels Keep On Turning

Walking The Streets Of Stoke

To the best of my recollection, it was fifty years ago when I took this photograph. It was the early 1970s, and I was at university at Keele in Staffordshire. Most weekends were spent either in London, where my soon to be wife was at university, or back in Halifax where we both came from. … Continue reading Walking The Streets Of Stoke

Filling Up

Let's travel back in time. It was the mid 1960s and I was earning a little extra money whilst still at school by working in the local petrol station in Northowram. This was before the days of self-service, so my job was to go out and fill the cars up with petrol. Occasionally I would … Continue reading Filling Up

Liberty

Forcing forward in the spirit of liberty or getting bogged down in the mud of history: today's calendar image dates back to 1982 and the Yorkshire Miners' Gala Parade in Doncaster. Around the corner was the miners' strike and changes beyond the imagination of those valiant banner-pushers.