Friday, March 27, 2015

Contiguous Images Of A Busy Little Week


Life has been up to its old tricks again - getting in the way of blogging. Monday was shopping in Leeds (although I was allowed to abandon the GLW in the new Trinity Centre and wander off on my own taking photographs). I spent a large chunk of Tuesday at the bank moving relatively small amounts of money from one bank account to another. I am still unclear as to why I did this other than the bank manager said he thought it was a good idea. I was so mentally exhausted by this mindless activity that I could do little for the rest of the day other than scan a few old negatives. One was a picture of Halifax back in the 1960s : a time when shops were not encased in glass and concrete and when bank managers worried that your overdraft was too large rather than too small.

Wednesday was a pleasant Spring day and a fine day to kick off a new project that my mate Steve and I are undertaking. I won't go into detail about the nature of the project now other than to say we made our way to the Wapentake of Agbrigg and Morley to undertake some photographic explorations. Thursday has already faded into a beery blur brought about by a lunchtime meeting of the Old Gits Luncheon Club. One of our members is about to move permanently to France so it was an occasion of fond farewells and endless pints of beer, nonsensical speeches and ...... even more pints of beer.  Which takes us to Friday - more shopping and just enough time to squeeze out this blog post.

As I scan my old 35mm negatives, I see my life in terms of contiguous images which serve to remind me - thirty years down the timeline - that I went to Halifax the day after Auntie Amy got married (or some such thing). The problem with digital images is that they come in individual lumps - each file is sacred and alone like some Paul Simon Rock or Island. So this week I am sewing a few images together within a 35mm framework so that, if I make it to 2040, I will remember this busy little week.

5 comments:

  1. Alan, that's what it's all about, sewing up the future for our own past selves, somehow.

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  2. Oh yes. I am a rock, I am an island..... And most of my photographs these days would baffle any archivist. Except when I am obviously in Bern or somewhere almost all my images seem to be of crisps! Hard to date. Or patchwork. Easier to sew but even harder to date.

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  3. If anyone ever looks at my photo collection they will say "What was she thinking?" :)

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  4. I occasionally stumble across photos of gasometers and cooling towers as well as viaducts and they arouse in me almost a fear. Can't say why but it certainly has a lot to do with my dislike of city life.

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  5. I wish I had labelled my negatives. But you never did label negatives, did you? or at least I didn't. In latter years I did keep them in a negative file and at least put the month and the year on.

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