Category: Photography

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I do like to be Beside the Seaside

Beside The Seaside: a photobook by Anne Ward

For the last few months (actually, more like years) I’ve been sorting through 18 years of digital photos scattered over hard disks, HD cards and even floppy disks. I almost lost them all once, and after that I decided it was time to make something a bit more permanent, for my own records if nothing else.

Crazy golf

So here is Beside The Seaside – book one in what will be a series of photobooks, self-published in very small editions. Featuring 60 full colour photos of the British seaside, it is a neat and sturdy A5 softcover book. 

Chip cannibal / seaside shelter

You too can have a copy, if you so desire. The price of £8 includes UK Postage and Packaging (Royal Mail second class). If you’d like the book signed or dedicated to someone please add a note during checkout.

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Glasgow archive photography round-up

Alan Dimmick

Alan Dimmick is a Glaswegian photographer, best known for photographing Glasgow’s art scene. He is posting archive photos on Instagram at the moment, fascinating to me because many are taken around Hyndland/Partick/Anniesland where I grew up.

The Windsor Cafe on Clarence Drive was my first local cafe, a real treasure trove of sweets and ice cream. The owners, pictured here, were a Scots-Italian brother and sister, with infinite patience from what I remember.

Jonathan Treen

Temptation - 1970s photographs by Jonathan Treen
‘Temptation’, Glasgow © 1977-2020 Jonathan Treen

Jonathan Treen is also posting archive photos of 1970s Glasgow on Twitter (@JonathanTreen) just now. Some of the locations are instantly recognisable, others changed beyond recognition.

Glasgow Swing Park - 1970s photographs by Jonathan Treen
Glasgow swing park © 1977-2020 Jonathan Treen

Photos taken from this interview on Document Scotland.

Graham Gavin

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The Cyrkles, Gourock, 1995

A post shared by Graham Gavin (@grahamgavinarchive) on

Graham Gavin has some great photos of Glasgow’s music scene in the 1990s – some lost bands, and some familiar faces.

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Warm winceyette

Winceyette bed jacket, John Ferguson, Perth

This is John Ferguson’s in Perth. One of the few remaining traditional urban outfitters.

John Ferguson, Perth - shop window

Two shops on either side of County Place have been clothing the denizens of Perth since 1924.

Rucksacks, John Ferguson, Perth

One side sells outdoor equipment and workwear. The other, clothes and ‘napery’ (household linen).

John Ferguson, Perth - shopfront

Ferguson’s recently amalgamated these shops into new premises at South Methven Street. I’m sad now that I was there on a Sunday and didn’t get a chance to see inside.

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On the beach

Westward Ho! beach, Devon
Westward Ho!

I’ve taken a picture of every beach I’ve been to, for the last 10 years or so. I was never sure why, but once I started I kept going.

Boscombe beach, Dorset
Boscombe

No beach looks particularly significant at the time, but when you see a few together, each one stands out in a different way.

Torridon beach
Torridon

I wasn’t sure what to do with these photos, but now I’m stuck at home (far from a beach) they have been really comforting to look at.

Portmeirion beach, Wales
Portmeirion

Perhaps this is what it was all for.

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The Bell, The Fish, The Bird and the Tree

St Mungo door knocker, Easdale Island

I’m not sure if any city is as proud of its coat of arms as Glasgow. You are never far from one – old or new, carved, engraved, painted, high or low – they are everywhere. Glasgow Coat of Arms started collecting them on Twitter @GlasgowCoA, and the crowdsourced results are currently on show at Glasgow City Heritage Trust in Bell Street until 6 Feb.

The story of St Mungo (Glasgow’s patron saint) and the book, the bell, the fish and the tree certainly caught my imagination at school, particularly the part about the salmon and the ring thrown into the river by the queen’s lover. That seemed a bit racey for primary school, particularly a Catholic one, but it did make saints seem cool.

I’m pleased to have contributed this wee St Mungo door knocker found on Easdale Island, 120-odd miles away from home. The collection is also on Instagram at instagram/GlasgowCoA and is growing all the time.