Solace In Skeggy

This has always been one of my favourite photographs of the East Coast. I took it in the early 1980s at a time when I was struggling with the gradual loss of my hearing. For whatever reason, those empty skies and forsaken piers seemed to suit my mood at the time. Somewhat strangely, I found … Continue reading Solace In Skeggy

Remember?

I may well remember, remember the fifth of November, but, for the life of me, I can't quite remember where I took this photograph. In my defence, I could add that it was almost sixty years ago and the building was on its last legs then. I have a feeling it was on the hillside … Continue reading Remember?

Reflections On Bull Green

I walked up to Bull Green roundabout the other day to pass the time of day only to discover it wasn't there anymore. One gets used to this kind of thing as one gets older, but even so, it was a bit of a shock. To mark its passing - and the end of October … Continue reading Reflections On Bull Green

Grainy Sheffield

These days you can add grain to an image with a click of a Photoshop filter. Forty-odd years ago, when I took this photograph in Sheffield, grain wasn't an optional add-on; it was the inevitable consequence of a fast film on a dark day. The grainy shapes in the distance are the Hallamshire Hospital and … Continue reading Grainy Sheffield

Bleak Shivers

I took this photograph in Akroyd Place, Halifax, in the early 1970s. It was fairly bleak and somewhat ominous even then. Fifteen or so years earlier, I remember being bussed to the Akroyd Place School Baths when it was even bleaker. I still have involuntary shivers when I pass where it used to be.

Concentrated Nostalgia

Brown paper bags, pounds, shilling, and pence, headscarves and overcoats - it's almost as though someone had bought a tube of concentrated nostalgia and squeezed it all over this photograph of mine of Halifax Borough Market back in the 1960s. And if they really did sell tubes of concentrated nostalgia, you would have been sure … Continue reading Concentrated Nostalgia

Yorkshire Paradise

I took the photograph that became the basis for this image of Paradise Square in Sheffield back in 1980. There was snow on the ground, which was slowly being transformed into mucky slush. My digital messing has given the whole thing a brownish tint, which somehow suits it. Paradise - Yorkshire style.

The Crown

The Crown Brewery once stood on Bradford Road in the village of Northowram, just north of Halifax. It was built in the 1870s as a brewery by John Eastwood, a local farmer who had turned his hand to brewing a few years earlier. The brewery closed in 1900, and the building was finally demolished in … Continue reading The Crown

Strangely Satisfying Shapes

The starting point of this image was a photograph I took in Brighouse Canal Basin thirty years ago. The shapes seemed more important than the details, so I messed with it a bit. The result is, I think, strangely satisfying.