Happy Birthday

 

The Nature Of Reality And The Digital Dilemma

 

Yes, It Is Me

 

South Yorkshire Allegory

 

Postcard Law

 

The Churchyard

 

Brighouse Fantasy

 

Elland Power

 

Britannia's Leafy Crown

 

It's a photograph I have taken time and time again over the last half century: Britannia sitting atop her eponymous buildings in Elland. During the 1970s and 80s, the scene was stark - stone, soot slate and a few brave saplings. By 2016, when this version was taken, vegetation was in charge and Britannia wore a leafy crown.

Albert

I took this photo of my father around the time I was doing a photography course at the local Tech. We were studying lighting, and the homework was to produce a dramatically lit portrait. I achieved this with a couple of reading lights and an old blackout curtain. These days, all you would have to do is ask AI to create the mood. It wouldn't be half the fun, however.

Celebration At The Rock

 

This is a classic image of what has always been, to me, a classic pub. It's not the closest pub to where I live, but it's my local. It doesn't have the fanciest range of real cask ales, but I'll forgive it. It's undoubtedly idiosyncratic, but so am I. My picture shows a 1911 celebration at the Rock Tavern, Upper Edge, Elland. There will be another celebration there next Friday (the 15th), when the Friday quiz returns after a six years absence. I can't guarantee the sheep will be there ... but I will be.

Four Characters In Search Of A Narrative

 

Another image from that collection of old photographs I've acquired over the years, which fall under the general heading of "Found Photographs". As usual, the questions of who, where and when must go unanswered - but that means we can make up our own stories. These are four characters in search of a narrative.

Oxford Days

 

A 40-odd year old photograph of me, surrounded by textbooks and typewriter, and captioned "Oxford, 1984" might suggest an involvement with some of the famed academic institutions of that city. In fact, we were simply staying with friends for the weekend, and the lecture I was writing would have been delivered in the far less distinguished quarters of Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

Conversations With AI Lowry

 

So I said to AI, "What if L. S. Lowry had visited Elland and set up his easel on Saddleworth Road, looking towards Elland Bridge?" "Give me a photo to start me off," said AI. "OK, here's one I took back in the 1980s. Can you do anything with it?" "I'll have a go," said AI. AI Lowry, that is.

A Town In Transition

 

My photograph of Halifax dates from the early 1970s and shows the town during a time of transition. Centre stage is the Homfray carpet mill (although by then it had become part of the Riding Hall Carpet Group), which ceased production not long after the picture was taken and was demolished by the start of the next decade. You can also see the course of the old railway line to Queensbury and the two power station cooling towers.

A Contented Pig

 

I met this splendid fellow yesterday during a visit to the Pigs In The Wood Animal Sanctuary in Scissett, Huddersfield. When I asked him to smile for the camera, he delivered a look of such contentment and satisfaction that it was a pleasure to behold.

The Celebration

 

This photo has been in that suitcase of memories I call the "family archives" for as long as I can remember, and I always assumed the cake was celebrating the birthday of one of my relatives born in 1851. On closer inspection, it doesn't say 1851 on the cake - it says 85. Given that the photo must have been taken around 1920, that means I'm looking for someone born around 1835. I haven't found her yet.

Revealing Dress

 

You can have great fun with artificial intelligence by asking it to transform a familiar picture of your favourite relative into an image of a 19th century Victorian gentleman - or whatever you like. More revealing, though, is taking a century old studio portrait and using AI to dress the subjects in modern clothing. My photo is a 1916 portrait of my grandparents and my mother (the little girl at the front). Put them in modern clothing, and suddenly I see my granddaughter.

Long And Winding Path

 

It's the end of the month, and here is a path leading somewhere - but who knows where? Whilst this is true in a literal sense (I have no idea where I was when I took this photograph nearly half a century ago), it is also true in a wider, philosophical sense. Perhaps May will bring peace and understanding. Alas, I'm not particularly optimistic that it will.

Dirty Old Town

 

I frequently met my love by these gas works walls; they were opposite the carpet mill where I was working at the time. Around then, I may have walked a little way up Old Bank in Halifax to take this photograph. In many ways, I suppose it was a "dirty old town", but it was my town and my home.

The Maid And The Watchers

 

This photograph, which I suspect dates from the 1920s, was in an old album I bought on eBay. The first thing to capture your attention is the maid, enjoying a moment of freedom - or sunshine - before returning to her duties in the big house. Then you notice the watchers. Who are they? And who are they watching - the maid or the photographer? There's half a novel in this one little photograph.

The Sirens Of The Gas Works

 

I know what you're going to say - you're going to say, "You cheat; you've used that photo on your calendar before!. What about 1st August 2024?" . It is not the same image, however. Throughout my life, I have been drawn to Bank Bottom in Halifax, like Canaletto was drawn to Venice and Cézanne was captivated by Aix-en-Provence. The sirens that inhabited Halifax Gas Works lured me there again and again - on this occasion in 1970.

The Quiet, Rhythmic Beauty Of Cleethorpes

 

There is a quiet, rhythmic beauty to the seaside that only reveals itself when the tide retreats, and this photograph captures that fleeting interval with striking architectural precision. The image is framed through the industrial skeleton of a Victorian-style pier, using the heavy, dark ironwork as a literal and metaphorical lens through which we view the expansive shoreline of what appears to be a British coastal town. (AI wrote that, I didn't)

What's In The Parcel?

 

This is a picture of my Uncle John and Auntie Doris, taken 75 years ago. I have lived with this picture all of my life - seeing it as a child, sticking out of crumbling photo albums; as an adult, confined to cardboard boxes of family memories; and as an old man, where it has become an exercise in scanning and saving. One unanswered question has stayed with me all that time: what on earth was in that brown paper parcel?

Faique News

 

When I was in Anglesey a couple of weeks ago, I was reminded of those wonderful paintings by Alfred I. Faique. He managed to capture the very essence of the coast so well, which must surely be a sign of a masterly artist.

Smokescreen

 

A photograph of mine from back in the days when smoke and steam swept through the ginnels and industrial waste dyed the becks and brooks. It was taken from Old Lane in Halifax, looking towards the then-mighty Crossley's Carpets Mill. Most of the buildings still exist - the smoke and the steam are long gone.

Under The Tram-Lines

 

I'm quite fond of this photo of mine - fond of the combination of brutal straight lines and sensuous curves, and fond of the way your eye is taken on a tram-ride of a journey through the scene.

Let's Face It, AI

AI-driven image restoration programmes are undoubtedly getting more sophisticated, and their use is clearly much more widespread than in the past. However, I still have reservations about how they treat faces. That little extra smoothing and additional touch of colour too often seem to change a recognisable face into something indistinct and slightly foreign. Interestingly, my AI-driven facial recognition software failed to recognise the AI-rendered restored image of Uncle Harry in today's photograph.