You need a touch of colour on days like today. Days when daylight comes grudgingly and brings a sleet storm or two with it. Days when you approach a pile of grainy black and grey photos from forty odd years ago and wonder why our memories never made it into technicolour. So, on days like … Continue reading A Touch Of Colour
Category: Scanned Negatives
You Can See The Teeth Marks
Another photograph of Halifax, and, almost inevitably, another photograph featuring Beacon Hill. Taking a photograph of Halifax without Beacon Hill is a bit like taking a picture of Blackpool without its tower or Hollywood without its sign. I must have taken this photograph from King Street, from the same position I took the photo of … Continue reading You Can See The Teeth Marks
Halifax In The Swinging Sixties
This wasn't a particularly good photograph in the first place: the focus could have been better, the composition would win no prizes. For the best part of 54 years it has been hidden away in my negative files, slowly collecting dust and fading into a relatively well-earned obscurity. There is, however, an inverse square law with … Continue reading Halifax In The Swinging Sixties
Watching Over Elland
There are some scenes I return to again and again: photographs I have been taking for fifty years. One such is the statue of Britannia which overlooks Elland Bridge from her elevated position on the roof of the former premises of the Halifax and Huddersfield Banking Company. Sometimes I try and capture her in an … Continue reading Watching Over Elland
Plus Ca Change
The final shot of this particular strip of negatives from fifty or more years ago provides a bit of a clue as to how the various views of the area around Shaw Lane, Halifax, fit together. It is a bit like playing three dimensional chess, in that you are not only trying to remember where … Continue reading Plus Ca Change
The Halifax Entrance To The Channel Tunnel
This is another image from fifty years ago, taken in the Shaw Lane area of Halifax. It has been a bit of a challenge to pin down where I was when I took this photograph, because - as far as I can work out - it doesn't exist anymore. However, it appears that this is … Continue reading The Halifax Entrance To The Channel Tunnel
Some Of It Is, Some Of It Isn’t
Some of this isn't there any more. Some of it is. I can't be entirely sure what is, and what isn't, because it is a long time since I walked up this narrow cobbled street in Halifax. This photograph was taken over fifty years ago, and I don't think I have been up this little … Continue reading Some Of It Is, Some Of It Isn’t
Change
You could still walk down Shaw Lane, Halifax, today and see little change to this view I took over fifty years ago. The mill buildings are still there, the cobbles are still set into the street. The wooden shed and railings are gone, the stone is a bit cleaner and there has been a bit … Continue reading Change
Burdock Way Wasn’t But Mack’s Offices Were
As with all of my old photographs of Halifax, the two questions that arose as soon as I scanned this old negative were time and place. Place, in the broadest sense, is relatively easy: that is clearly Halifax in the background, and using a similar approach to the way forensic scientists track a bullet's trajectory, … Continue reading Burdock Way Wasn’t But Mack’s Offices Were