tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post2420379134352772269..comments2024-03-13T07:34:24.149+00:00Comments on The Age of Uncertainty: A Child's-Eye ViewSteerforthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-55616018452376293652012-09-18T18:52:25.885+00:002012-09-18T18:52:25.885+00:00Sorry, that last sentence should read "Where ...Sorry, that last sentence should read "Where I've probably helped to price the local people out of their own area".Steerforthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-69205414181582811162012-09-18T18:51:01.220+00:002012-09-18T18:51:01.220+00:00Thank you Lapsang - I'm glad that you picked u...Thank you Lapsang - I'm glad that you picked up on the Man Ray influences and of course the absence of feet was a subtle reference to the 'feet of clay' of Richmond's wealthy residents. I must admit I'm secretly please with the shot of the hills and the barn.<br /><br />Chickadee - They say the past is a foreign country, but it's really the future. You grow up somewhere and form a view of how the world works, only to discover that it's all built on sand. <br /><br />From my point of view, that world was slow to change. People generally stayed in the same houses and apart from seeing them get older, life went on as usual. Then in mid-80s, my 'manor' became popular - probably because it was the greenest part of London - and the house prices shot up. Local people gratefully sold their very ordinary houses for a song, wealthier people moved in, shops became smart restaurants and suddenly I felt like a stranger in my own town.<br /><br />I reacted by moving here, where I've probably helped tohere out of their own area. Oh well.Steerforthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-84063769547216805242012-09-18T18:11:24.248+00:002012-09-18T18:11:24.248+00:00I guess change is inevitable, but I understand how...I guess change is inevitable, but I understand how you feel about returning to the old neighbourhood and not seeing a soul you knew. I grew up in a small town, which today is a medium-to-large city, thanks to the influx of the behemoth Microsoft and the building of hundreds and hundreds of new homes. Sometimes when I return to the town, I am hard put to even find or remember where certain buildings, once important to me, used to be. I recently reminisced about an ice cream shop which I went to with friends while I was in school. "Let's make a pilgrimage," my friend's wife said. "We can't - it's gone, replaced by a six-story block of flats." <br />Change is inevitable, but not always for the better. Canadian Chickadeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12995693884248628958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-60781957467875008202012-09-18T08:05:13.247+00:002012-09-18T08:05:13.247+00:00Steerforth, you're far too hard on your eight-...Steerforth, you're far too hard on your eight-year-old self. All of these photos have a good sense of balance and a visual dynamism even if they're of 'boring' subjects. You'd obviously picked up the rule of thirds from somewhere, too: in the few photos I took at that age you'll find every horizon running across the centre of the image, every face in the middle. You only just cut some people's feet off in the Richmond Fair picture, and not at all in the Earls Court one (where the chap's crossed leg also echoes the white line at the edge of the platform). I can see why you wouldn't want to big up your pictures – "I Was A Boy Genius!" – but in the circumstances they're pretty good.lapsangsouchongnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-77538034179985293232012-09-17T10:43:30.543+00:002012-09-17T10:43:30.543+00:00I'm very lucky in that my late Mum's partn...I'm very lucky in that my late Mum's partner put all the old family 35mm slides onto a cd rom for us some time ago - and he wasn't even in any of the photos. He even did some slide-shows of our Swiss and Austrian holidays from the late 70s/early 80s and put a soundtrack of yodelling music on. They are wonderful to look back on, and together with my Mum's diaries are helping me compile a family chronology.<br /><br />Funnily enough, I recognised High St Kensington tube station from your photo!Annabel (gaskella)http://gaskella.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-64792101171883340662012-09-16T12:58:53.887+00:002012-09-16T12:58:53.887+00:00Flavia - You didn't go to Richmond College in ...Flavia - You didn't go to Richmond College in the early 80s did you? There was a Flavia in my politics class. <br /><br />I always find it intriguing that the most famous people to spring from Teddington were Noel Coward, John Wells and Julian Clary - perhaps the place gives people a highly developed sense of the absurd.<br /><br />(I've also wondered why so many bands and singers grew up in the Bromley-Dartford area: the Rolling Stones, Bowie, Siouxsie, Culture Club etc. Perhaps the dullness of the place produced a creative energy). <br /><br />Nell - I've struggled with the discolouration on some slides, but most have come up pretty well. Sometimes, the corrected versions look too 'now' and I reset them back to their slightly faded, blue-remembered tinge.<br /><br />I feel ambivalent about digitising everything. I value my albums, but they're already falling apart after only 25 years - photo mounts have dried up and the picture are turning green.Steerforthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-21597032263065509322012-09-16T08:22:23.676+00:002012-09-16T08:22:23.676+00:00Kind of a spooky feeling to read from someone else...Kind of a spooky feeling to read from someone else who grew up in Teddington -- now so far away and so long ago.Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17488510019355437606noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-82216041152745663312012-09-15T18:21:53.741+00:002012-09-15T18:21:53.741+00:00Scanning old family slides has been a project of m...Scanning old family slides has been a project of my dad's for a very long while now, as the tedium of it means he can only do it in short bursts. Nearly a whole box of slides taken around 1974 are photos of a hospital car park shot from from above. These were taken when I was hospitalised with pneumonia and are a poignant record of the sense of helplessness and, I'm sure, awkwardness my Dad must have felt during the visits to see me.Foxesatdawnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06603294148538497587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-1726817395018930492012-09-15T13:07:18.469+00:002012-09-15T13:07:18.469+00:00We've just got a new scanner and are busily sc...We've just got a new scanner and are busily scanning both my parents' and our own boxes of slides. Like you, we found many 'views' which could be anywhere, but the ones with people in are the ones to keep. It also means you can get rid of some of the ghastly discolouration, although we've had to convert some to black and white as all colours have faded to a general blue or green. Nevertheless it's been a revelation.Little Nellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11862657943846727987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-53837272253604975062012-09-15T07:52:45.146+00:002012-09-15T07:52:45.146+00:00Rog - I wish I could remember. That camera meant s...Rog - I wish I could remember. That camera meant so much to me at the time, I feel almost guilty that I can't recall its name! It wasn't a well-known name - not even a Praktica or Zenith. There was a little dial where I had to guess how far away the subject was - not a perfect system, but better than the rubbishy 'fixed focus'.<br /><br />Tororo - As you say, it was very exciting. I think that as a child, you live in the moment and don't worry about posterity or other people's aesthetic sensibilities. Perhaps part of becoming a decent photographer is learning to rediscover that magic in the ordinary and mundane.Steerforthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-42067263323392884612012-09-15T07:28:14.471+00:002012-09-15T07:28:14.471+00:00Please don't feel sorry for having shot seemin...Please don't feel sorry for having shot seemingly "dull" pictures: the ones I have left from the time I had my first camera (an Instamatic, of course) offer equally dull views, and I could as well ask myself "why?". I guess to any kid, the wonder of being able to take their own pictures is exciting enough. Plus, several of the ones above not only have got this special time-capsule quality but plastic qualities as well. The ominous sky above dreaming Teddington, if printed on a movie poster, would convey a clear meaning: we are only minutes afar from the Martians landing! (or perhaps: Death-Eaters dark magic is at work somewhere). Ad the moors shot works well as a picture of isolation.Tororohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16635264152016312595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-15317325210550044792012-09-15T07:12:03.643+00:002012-09-15T07:12:03.643+00:00Lovely red sky shot. Your digital images would hav...Lovely red sky shot. Your digital images would have been stored on 5.25" floppies so entirely safe from the general public. What was the camera?Roghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09430706557035189147noreply@blogger.com