HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY GRANDDAD!

21/10/09

My inspirational Grandfather would have celebrated his 100th birthday today. Born on 21st October 1909, he has always had the biggest influence on me in regards of photography. He was a keen photographer himself for most of his life and started to take photographs at the age of 15, using what he always described to me as 'a small box with a tiny hole' (a pinhole camera) which he made himself. The pictures on the left are his self-portraits, taken when he was a very young man.

I find old original photographs fascinating. My Grandfather had taken hundreds of images, mainly using a camera which used glass-plates negatives. These had to be developed straight away after the exposure. Something that in our digital age is quite hard to imagine (at least for me). I now own many of my Grandfather's images and love looking at them. Granddad loved capturing images of people and recording events in his life. Though these images are just a hint of what his life was like, I feel privilidged to be able to experience it through his eyes. He left a great record of the past.... his past... a past of an ordinary person. Long time forgotten yet so alive in his pictures.

Happy Birthday Granddad. I know that you are watching over me.