Unlocking the Archive

UnlockingtheArchive2a

Another from the Archive

I don’t know why but whilst listening to a photographer talking at a recent Miniclick talk a recollection of this image came to mind.

Mum&Spaniel

As a family we always had a dog at home, for the most part anyway. My mother would often relate a story of having had a Spaniel when she was younger, and that she always had to “peg” its ears up to avoid them trailing into its food bowl. We never had a photograph of the dog in our family photograph archive though. When Geoff’s  (see below) mother died he inherited his family archive and set about discovering the contents. Out of the blue came this image. I have no information about who took the photograph, or when it was taken.

One from the Archive with fond memories attached.

I’ve speculated on the nature of photography and its purpose ever since I became a photographer back in the seventies. I’m always amazed at how photographs can take us back to the time and place that the photograph was taken. And that is certainly true of family photographs.

I have been slowly working through my photographic archive, both film and digital and that reawakening of memories makes the process somewhat slow. In my mother’s family photo album there was always a photograph of me (very young) and an old family friend Geoffrey.

Pankhurst-3

My mother use to babysit for his family before I came along, and as such he, and they became very much part of an extended family.  Even though there was no genetic connection. Our family was quite small, just my mother and I.

Geoffrey, who  now lives in America, went on to become a photographer and I’ve often pondered whether this was an influence on my following him down the photographic  path.

We do though, I think, have a very different approach to our photography. I think his has been more commercial whereas mine has been and is  quite eclectic. Although I did dabble in the commercial world for a short while.

At his mother’s funeral some years ago I photographed him and his wife and this photograph resurfaced whilst recently trawling my digital archive.

0150b

To be continued……

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