Halifax Before The Earth Moved

 

This started as another of those "where was I standing when I took this" mysteries. The photograph dates from the 1970s, and the quest for my vantage point wasn't helped by the dubious quality of the old negative. Clearly that is Halifax in the distance and there are enough stone-spires and brick-blocks visible to begin to construct lines of sight. However much I tried, however, I couldn't get things to fit together. My best guess was that I was standing somewhere near Hullen Edge, above Elland, but there are chimneys where there shouldn't be and empty gaps where there should be things. Perhaps I took the photograph before the movement of the tectonic plates associated with the Great Elland Earthquake.

I soon lost interest in trying to work out where I was standing fifty years ago - I have difficulty remembering where I was standing yesterday - and concentrated instead of adding one or two filters and a touch of colour. I quite like the resulting image - it has a slightly mythical quality about it - quite fitting for Halifax before the earth moved.

Five Miserable Men From Ovenden

 

This is an Edwardian studio Cabinet Card featuring five unknown men. On the reverse is a studio stamp which reads “B Collier, Photographer, Ovenden, Nr Halifax” I have not been able to find any record of such a photographer in any of the lists of Victorian and Edwardian studios, nor in census records, but that is not particularly unusual. During the last decade and of 19th and first decade of the 20th century, photographic studios were a bit like men's barbers and vape shops today - they would appear and disappear as quick as a studio flash. The five men in question don't look pleased with life, but maybe they had nothing to be pleased about. A very different picture to preserve for posterity compared with the smiley selfies of 100 years later.

Tuesday 4 October 2022

 

Smartphone Apps often supply you with a range of decorative frames to dress up your photos and present them to their best advantage. Trees provide a similar service to anyone who cares to walk the hills that overlook Halifax. Chimneys, church spires, and even blocks of concrete flats seem to sprout from the verdant valley landscape below.