As a child, I used to visit Chapel St. Leonards yearly, which is quite close to Skegness-the seaside, chips, the repetative songs that blare out of arcades, market stalls selling sticks of rock and I Love Skeggy keyrings.
For nostalgic purposes, I searched "Skegness" on Flickr. I came across these really interesting photographs and it reminded me of the magic a photograph can hold. "Old photographs" seem to have a mystical quality about them. They way they capture a time and how you can see how much things have changed.
I wonder if in 20 years time I will feel the same feeling looking at photographs taken today.
I look at these photographs and they are capturing a moment. It is something about how every snap taken had to be developed with no clue what they would look like and no option to disregard a dodgy one. And after, they may sit in a frame, in a photograph album or hidden away in a drawer but not many people would see them.
Sometimes with pictures I see today, on Facebook and whatnot, it feels like the moment is the taking the picture, and whatever is happening inside that picture is irrelivant. I browse Facebook and I see many samey drunken photographs, self-taken photographs, lots of smiling faces and it feels too self conscious, as if they are not connoting a good time but "Hello, I am very normal and appearing on Facebook"
Anyway, these photographs are posted by a man trying to find the names of the people in them: "40 + years ago I was in Skegness for the summer season as an assistant manager with Woolworths. I took these photos at a party in my flat on Drummond Road. I remember the faces, but the names escape me ... does anyone know? They will all be in their mid-60s now."
They look full of happiness and romance, who knows what life was holding for them:
No comments:
Post a Comment