Other places commission large-scale public sculptural projects, be they Kelpies, Angels or cast iron paddlers on Crosby sands. We don't need them here in Halifax, we still have a host of monumental obelisks in praise of muck, steam, soot and industry. Halifax shapes.
Tag: Scanned Negatives
The Summer Of ’68
It was the summer of 1968 and the world was changing. Student protests were sweeping Europe and three students packed their rucksacks and set off in search of adventure. Their passion for protest sank into the muddy ground of a camp site just outside Amsterdam. The passion for change of at least one of the … Continue reading The Summer Of ’68
Happy Times
This photograph of Sheffield was taken some 40 years ago when we lived there. It was a bright, bustling place, full of people and lights and a good deal of happiness. If this photo is anything to go by, it also had its fare share of buses. Happy times.
It’s Halifax
I must have taken the original photograph about thirty years ago, although this version of it dates from last night. It's a familiar scene: a mixture of concrete and stone, cast iron and barbed wire, chapels and mill chimneys, It's Halifax.
Faith Demolished
Another of my photographs of Rhodes Street, Halifax, taken - I think - in the early 1970s. The call for faith on the church notice board was clearly short-lived: the church was demolished shortly after the photograph was taken.
The Swinging Sixties – On Godley Bridge
Most people of my generation can look back to the swinging sixties with memories of rock and roll plus or minus the usual accompaniments. It appears, however, that I spent the decade standing on top of Godley Bridge taking photographs of an ever-changing Halifax. Here's yet another from 1966.
Cleaning Up The Town Hall
In dating pictures of old Halifax, there are certain events that - rather like the destruction of the dinosaurs in geological times - mark the changeover between major epochs. One such event was the stone cleaning of Halifax Town Hall, bringing about its transition from soot-black to golden-stone, in 1972.
St Thomas And The Gasworks
Someone asked me the other day how many pictures of Halifax I had taken over the years. I couldn’t give an answer, but it’s a lot: and that is not because I am an exceptionally prolific photographer, it’s just that I’ve been around for a good few years. Many of the subjects are repeat offenders: … Continue reading St Thomas And The Gasworks
Dripping With Bennett – A Sad Tale Of The Five Towns
Luckily the location of this old 35mm negative is obvious from the church notice board and the proud lettering over the portico, but if not I suspect I would have guessed it was one of towns that make up Stoke-on-Trent. The church drips Arnold Bennett : I can see Constance Baines fussily climbing the church … Continue reading Dripping With Bennett – A Sad Tale Of The Five Towns
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