Good luck - 16th November 1914

It's another box of family stuff and found this in a scrap book of memories.

I'm on my way to being self employed, a big step for me.

Good luck all.

Ken

At The Beecroft

Yesterday I went to the opening day of the excellent Thames Delta at The Beecroft to wander round a history of local bands since the fifties. Was a good collection of the band's ephemera. I never really got into the local band scene when I was younger. I left Southend when I was 18 and came back when I was 25 and there was nothing I could really connect with even though I grew up in the place.

Hobbling round I met Les and his friend Brian. We chatted for a long time and it turns out he knew some of my Dad's old art mates in the early days, maybe they even knew eachother. Les is an artist and art teacher from Southend and it was a real pleasure meeting him. Les is 84 plus some more, his friend Brian was great too.

Les Shaw

Les Shaw & Brian Parker

Ken

Sisters & Lily

I'm just about sorted Lily's family pictures. Which one is Lily? One of three sisters. She was either one of the twins or the eldest and the one I think has written on most of the backs. My bet is the eldest.

The mother was called Lily too. And the three sisters . . . Lily, Violet and Ivy.

The Twins - No names on the back

Is this Lily I wonder? There is a faint dimple and she does have that enchanting gaze, also a distinct way of standing.

Ken

Some pictures of Lily

Last week I got another box of family pictures from the local auction. Seemed like they were trashed, all jumbled up in a "festive favourites gift box"

Lily crops up in quite a few pictures.

It's very sad for a family to let this happen and it constantly baffles me. I'm very taken with Lily, to me she somehow shines through these old pictures. Anyway, here are some pictures of Lily.

Mum & Lily

Ivydene, Woodgrange Drive, Southend-on-Sea

I'm not 100% sure about the last one. No name on the back.

Ken

Street Life in London

My last post got me thinking about a picture on page 36 of John Szarkowski's
Looking at Photographs... 100 Pictures From The Collection of The Museum of Modern Art


It's another favorite of mine, it depicts second hand furniture sellers. A world I know a little bit about
as I have been one myself. It's a very very interesting world, I really should try documenting it.

Old Furniture
From Street Life In London 1877-1878
John Thomson

Man, that's beautiful, it really is. I wanted to see more and I'm sure you do to

Though you can see the individual images on the LSE's site. You really should read the essays that acompany each picture

It's a beauiful piece of work

Shot of the week

I  had a second hand shop for a short while, I used to sell second hand goods on markets during the same time. It's an interesting world with a lot of characters in it.  So I was very pleased to come across this shot of 18th century life in Newcastle, while using The Guardian Eyewitness app on my ipad (a picture a day basically)


It's fitting that Aaron Guy*, the man that found the glass negatives works at Newcastle's Mining Institute. He's not struck coal, he's struck gold

Shooting the street never gets old

You can see more here
.


That photograph is just beautiful to me. It has everything I look for in a photograph. It has a certain distance to it, but it's social comment. I'm guessing or at least like to think that the photographer was not from the same world as the people in the photograph but wanted to show a part of English life worth documenting, which is one of the very best reason to take a photograph.  It's beautifully balanced, nothing in the frame is out of place, it looks so easily made, but that's just not the case at all, it's a complex image that rivals an Evans (Evans didn't really do social comment though).

To quote Robert Adams...

"Only pictures that look as if they had been easily made can convincingly suggest that beauty is common place"



*A kindred spirit for Smithy

Polyfoto 2012

As the clock ticked over and it is now officially my Birthday I thought I'd do my own Polyfoto in some sort of memory of Jean Gordon. Lots of people did back then, it looked like Jean treasured that memory.

I am 48 years old now, it scares me. I showed a photograph of my Dad to my Dad once and he said "who's that?". Think I know what he meant now.

48 pictures . . .

and a fave vid!

Ken