A photo of my Aunty Miriam and Uncle Frank (how can you go swimming in the sea while smoking a cigarette?) and some unknown child. There's a Georges Seurat feel about the scene, and it perfectly illustrates how random old photographs can become works of art in their own right.
Tag: Old Photographs
Drop The Headless Donkey
I've no idea who the child is or why the donkey seems to have lost its head, but that doesn't matter. It's just one of the prints from my more than plentiful supply of lost and unknown old photographs. It's summer, it's seaside, it's joyous.
Dicka Smith
There's a name scribbled on the reverse of this early 20th century portrait from the Clark Studio of Blyth: "Dicka Smith." Given the time and place, there is a fair chance that Dicka was a miner. The strange object that seems to be supporting him was just one of the studio props that were popular … Continue reading Dicka Smith
The Walkley Hoard
Some years ago I bought a batch of of negatives for a few pounds. The photographs must have been taken during the 1940s and 50s, and many featured views of the Walkley area of Sheffield, so collectively I call them the Walkley Hoard. This is a print from one of the medium format negatives - … Continue reading The Walkley Hoard
Life At The Lifeboat
The three subjects of this 1950s "Found Photo" look like they might have been hired from Central Casting. You half expect Terry Thomas to appear with a tennis racket or Margaret Rutherford to waddle on in a fur stole. I'm not sure where The Lifeboat Inn is (I'm hoping someone might tell me), but it … Continue reading Life At The Lifeboat
That Certainty
A moment snatched from history: a gathering of objects, people and places. At one time they meant something to someone - your Aunty Bess, or Jean's mother before her stroke. Now the objects and people rearrange themselves and mean something about the passage of time - that lamp, those hills, that certainty.
Mother, When Young
This lovely lady appears on the second of the ten Victorian photographs I bought whilst I was up in Whitley Bay. The only clue to her identity is a pencilled caption on the reverse of the photograph stating "Mother When Young". Try taking a photo like that on your smartphone!
Living In The Stream
There is something rather sad about the fact that this is an unknown family member - such a characterful face, such a promising pose, should never become unknown. But she lives on, she graces multiple streams of social media, she continues to radiate charm, long after the horse-hair stuffing has deserted the armchair.
Selo – The Fast Film
I went digging in one of the endless boxes of old photographs that are slowly taking over our house and came up with not a photograph, but a colourful envelope used to deliver negatives and prints back in the 1930s. Oh, you digital slaves of Smarty McSmart phones, you don't know what you are missing … Continue reading Selo – The Fast Film
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