In The Steps Of Genius

 

Old Lane in Halifax was the setting for two of the finest photographs of the twentieth century. The fourth frame on my forty-year-old strip of negatives is my rather mediocre recreation of Bill Brandt’s magnificent 1937 photograph, Snicket in Halifax. The original is easy to find online, and it is worth noting that little had changed during the half-century leading up to my photograph of the same snicket.

Halifax

 

Bridge over bridge, concrete over iron, set against a hillside as old as time. Over my nearly eight decades, I’ve travelled widely, but Halifax was, is, and will remain my greatest source of inspiration. This is the third photograph from that strip of negatives taken forty years ago.

Bus On A Bridge

The second image in my strip of six negatives, taken 40 years ago, shows a bus on a bridge. The bridge is, of course, Burdock Way in Halifax. If you look closely, you may see that the bus is advertising even more local editions of the local newspaper. Forty years later, the photograph would have been taken on a mobile phone — which would also have been the platform for local news. The bus, however, would still be there!

Lest We Forget

Lest we forget the days when images were chemical stains on translucent cellulose acetate, and photographic imagination was limited by the number of frames left on a roll of film. This week, I am limiting myself to a single strip of six negatives, all exposed around Halifax some forty years ago. The first image is, as far as I can remember, of Oats Royd Mill in Luddenden, taken before it was badly damaged by fire in 1989.

What Goes Around ....

My postcard this week takes us back to a time when political cartoons were considered suitable content for picture postcards. It also takes us back to 1903–04, when the idea of free trade was being challenged by politicians advocating protectionism and the use of tariffs as an instrument of foreign policy - most notably Joseph Chamberlain, who urged the rest of Balfour’s Cabinet to join him. You would probably find similar cartoons on social media today - plus ça change!

Friendly Fire

 

For the past 848 weeks, Sepia Saturday has offered themes that allow lovers of old photographs from around the world to share their favourite images. This month’s themes are working their way through the elements, and this week’s theme is “fire”.My submission is this rather sweet photograph from, I think, the 1920s, which I have entitled “Friendly Fire”.

The Mist Of Time

Those who know the town of Brighouse can have fun with this picture - which I must have taken sixty or so years ago - trying to work out where I took it from and what the various buildings, fading into the post-industrial mist of time, are. Many have now gone, and most of those that remain have entirely different uses from those they had back in the 1960s.

Standing On The Edge

It seems so long ago - almost another age. The colours and styles may have changed, but then, as now, we stood on the edge and looked out.

Bare Beacon

 

When I look back at the pictures I took of Halifax in the 1960s and ’70s - the town I have always considered home - several things stand out. The town had a greyness then that went beyond an over-reliance on monochrome photography. There were still plenty of mill chimneys breaking up the skyline. Most striking of all, Beacon Hill was bare, devoid of any meaningful vegetation.

Good Taste

Sitting in a restaurant, whiling away the time while the others enjoyed their starters, I began playing with the reflections of the bottles behind the bar. Within a handful of seconds, my photograph had bounced from Thongsbridge to an AI mega-kitchen on the far side of the world, where it was cooked to perfection and served back to me. Good taste.

St Thomas And The Gasworks (Again)

 

This is another of those scenes I kept returning to in the 1960s, and I have several versions of it in my negative archive. Perhaps it was fortunate that I did my best to capture the scene in all its glory, because shortly afterwards, not only was the Gasworks frame demolished, but so too was the central feature: the tower of St Thomas’ Church in Claremount.