Chasing Nostalgia
For me and possibly for a lot of people who like photography I find that old photographs have a certain draw to them, we like the way things looked years ago, or we are just interested in how things have changed from how they are now.
I love old black and white pictures, the grime of the city streets, men wearing long coats and trilby hats, women hanging their washing out, the white sheets contrasting with the dirty faces of the kids that play outside. It’s these things that draw me to black and white photography, because these things cannot be seen anymore, that time has passed and things look totally different now. But it hasn’t stopped me looking for the past and to try and make photographs that have a nostalgic feel to them.
The engineers
I know it’s not true nostalgia and that only comes with time passed. Hopefully the pictures we take on the streets and of our family life now, will have that nostalgic feel to them as they are viewed fifty plus years from now by the people of the future. They will look at our pictures and maybe smile at the things we were doing, and the technologies we were using and maybe they will say “You don’t see that anymore” That’s the funny thing about Nostalgia, we don’t know what people will find nostalgic or how long it will take before it happens, nostalgia is in the future and it’s about the past.
So to get my own photography fix of nostalgia in the present I go to different events that happen around the country, I’ve gone to Historical reenactment events where you have vikings to American civil war re en-actors through to WWII and up to modern military armies, reenacting historical events such as The Battle of Waterloo.
The photographs in this post are from a local event with the theme of the 40’s, it’s grown massively over the years and the whole town gets involved. People from all over come to take part during the weekend, and if you’re not dressed up you feel out of place.
Strong arm of the law
Collar felt
No pictures buddy!
The Resistance
