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HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY GRANDDAD!

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.