Walking Backwards : Albert And The Loch

This is a strip of five 35mm monochrome negatives which date from the early 1960s when we were on a holiday in Scotland, staying at a caravan site on Loch Leven. One of the photographs is taken from the caravan itself, looking through the window, and you can clearly see the proximity to the loch itself. Just up the road was the small village of Kinlochleven, where - at the time - there was an active aluminium smelter there which was powered by the associated hydro-electric power station. The smelter was closed in the 1990s and the hydro-electric station now channels power into the national grid and the main industry is tourism.

The loch is surrounded by the most glorious mountains and the majestic Ben Nevis dominates the skyline to the north. Further down the loch, on the other side to where our caravan was based, was the village of Glencoe, the site of the deadly massacre of 1698. It is well over 50 years since I took these photographs and if they had been printed out on paper stock they would no doubt by now have begun to take on the sepia patina of age. This does not apply to well kept negatives so I have turned to Photoshop to provide a suitable shade of antiquity.

My favourite photograph of the entire strip is the photograph of my father, Albert, leaning on a convenient loch-side tree. I can remember that stance, that quiet calm, that hat ... I can remember taking the photograph as though it was only yesterday. I miss him - Albert and the loch.