Photos for my UK friends

[AlphaDog]

My daughter in law found this photo set a few days ago and sent me the link. It's called "The Last Days of the Old North" and is a collection of old black and white photos taken in the late 1960s and early 1970s. One subtitle of the set is "Where the industrial age began, so it ended." Unfortunately, I've never been to England, so the town names have little meaning to me, but there are photos from Manchester, Swadlincote, and others.

There are several ways to view the photos, and I finally found one in which the photos could be viewed along with both the full captions and comments that had been posted. When I set it to the slideshow mode, I couldn't get it slowed down enough to both view the picture and read the captions, but maybe somebody else can figure out how to do that! I found the presentation very interesting and thought I'd pass it along.

http://flickr.com/photos/fray_bentos/set...155559143/

[Monster]

slideshow, pause, navigate one by one using arrow keys.

[voodoopenguin]

Can I be your friend?

Lovely set of photos, thanks for pointing me at them. There is a strange beauty in all that industrial grime but we must never forget the poverty and tough lives of the people who had to live there.

The painter Lowry was mentioned in the descriptions and that has reminded me that I was in the area just a few weeks ago and visited the modern theatre and gallery complex that is named after him. We saw a huge exhibition of his original work and my admiration for his style grew even more. Maybe I will post some pictures of the visit soon.

[AlphaDog]

Well, Vood, you were the person I had in mind, and I think simon is from UK, too, isn't he? Of course you can be my friend! I'm glad you enjoyed them. And you're right. The haunting quality of many of them also provide a comment about the lives of the people who lived there.

[DP]

This is what I think black and white photography is best at telling the story.
Great stuff-wish I shot it...

[ScottG]

Thanks very much for posting this link- I might not have found these photos otherwise. I lived in Sheffield for a few years, and half of my family came from the Leeds and Bradford area of the UK, similar to the places in these photos. Although there are still some streets similar to this, most have been demolished and replaced with soulless crap. Ironically, in Sheffield many of the buildings put up to replace these houses are already being torn down- largely because they were inhuman places to live.

cheers
scott