Category: Scanned Negatives

Simply Halifax

This is a photograph of Old Lane in Halifax I took almost fifty years ago. I was following the footsteps of the great photographer Bill Brandt, who had walked the same streets in Halifax thirty years before that. This remains one of my favourite photographs of Dean Clough - the simplicity of the shapes are … Continue reading Simply Halifax

Steel City Snow

More photographs of Sheffield from the 1980s. Looking back at these old photographs of mine, I can't help but try to identify what has changed, not so much in terms of buildings, but in terms of the feel and the atmosphere. These grainy black and white images are responsible for a lot of the perceived … Continue reading Steel City Snow

Rainy Days And Mondays

Here is another of my photographs of Sheffield taken back in the 1980s. The common feature of so many of these seems to be that they were taken on rainy days and Mondays, but there were still shops on the streets, cars on the roads and shoppers going about their business. This is Surrey Street, … Continue reading Rainy Days And Mondays

Greetings From Elland

When you go to Paris, you take a photograph of the Eiffel Tower, in New York it's the Statue of Liberty .... and when you visit Elland it has to be the Calder Valley from Hullen Edge. I must have taken this photograph in the late 1970s: the bypass looks as though it is still … Continue reading Greetings From Elland

The Failure Of Medieval GPS

Even with photographs taken fifty years ago, I am normally pretty good at remembering roughly where they were taken. Perhaps I can't always pin down the actual street corner or the back alley, but, in most cases, when I clicked the camera shutter release, some form of medieval GPS geotagged the image in my mind. … Continue reading The Failure Of Medieval GPS

A Lazy S

Whenever I look at my old photographs of Halifax from the sixties and seventies, I am reminded of just how much it was a period of change for the town. Roads were being built whilst others were being demolished, chimneys were coming down whilst tower blocks were going up. And the trees were coming back: … Continue reading A Lazy S

Where Houses Weren’t And Mills Still Were

Here is the second of the photographs taken from the top of Beacon Hill, Halifax in the early 1970s. My camera has swung around, so now I am looking in the direction of The Shay and Savile Park. You can just make out the three graces - St Jude's Church, Crossley Heath and Wainhouse Tower … Continue reading Where Houses Weren’t And Mills Still Were

Another Snowy Night In Sheffield

Another set of photographs from the early 1980s in Sheffield. Perhaps it was always snowing in winter in Sheffield forty years ago, but more likely these photographs were taken on the same night as the ones I featured a couple of weeks ago. The weather may have been bad, but it didn't stop people going … Continue reading Another Snowy Night In Sheffield

Back On Top Of Beacon Hill

Looking back at my old photographs, it would appear that I spent much of my youth stood on top of Beacon Hill, Halifax! If it were true, such behaviour can be partly justified by the fact that the top of Beacon Hill was the nearest we had to drones fifty years ago. From there, you … Continue reading Back On Top Of Beacon Hill