COBBLER'S PAGE

In the months preceding the end of 1999 there was, as was to be expected, a lot of looking back in the newspapers and on TV. As we approach the Millennium it seems we have to pick the best of the sportsman/woman, the best this, and the best that of the last 100 years. In the case of TV this gave an excuse to show many old programmes, some good and some not so good depending on your taste. One new programme that fascinated me was a play 'Shooting the Past'. This was about an American wanting to buy a photographic reference library so that he could pull it down and build a conference centre in its place. The small staff were naturally against this and proceeded to demonstrate the value of this collection of pictures in various ways. It reads as a thin storyline but apart from the superb acting, it was the pictures used to unfold the plot that were the stars. Each one had a story to tell. They were all monochrome prints from the Hulton Picture Library. As you would expect most of them concerned people and events, sometimes of world shattering significance and others of normal everyday happenings at a particular time. All of these pictures (and there were thousands) could be looked up in a matter of minutes as they were catalogued in most cases, or for dramatic effect in the play relied on one mans memory. We have got so used to seeing pictures all the time a lot now being computerised so that fact becomes blurred with fiction. To have the opportunity to see so much 'straight' photography on television presented in a dramatic form was a real treat. There has been a flood of pictures in the media with newspapers featuring excellent historic moments captured by the camera. The BBC have done a series of mainly computerised set pieces on 'The Millennium' which worked quite well but it was the stills used in the 'Britain at War' programme that I remember; used as AV shots they had terrific impact.

All this brought home to me what a very important part the picture has in our everyday lives. I take for granted the advertising, the news, the information and entertainment they provide. They have always been there. I was brought up with photography in the house as my father was a keen amateur photographer and I cannot imagine a world without pictures. I was fascinated and awestruck to see a display of cave art in Namibia recently. Our early ancestors had to make their pictures and the subjects they chose were everyday events. Now centuries later we are 'image saturated' and out of all the material we can come up with our favourite/best millennium pictures. Or can we? When asked to pick out their own top ten favourite prints from those they had taken over the years our camera club members found it extremely difficult. What criteria do you use? Should it be your most successful work, accepted at the most exhibitions? Technically perfect? (they all should be any way), sentimental reasons? the best landscape, portrait, event picture you have taken? Does it have a story to tell?

I have never counted my pictures but I must have somewhere in the region of 500 mounted B&W and colour prints. I finished up with four portraits,two record (buildings), and four landscape pictures in my ten. It took days of selection and rejection.

How can anyone or anything be voted the best that happened in this millennium when you have difficulty in selecting the best out of the last hundred years. There has been so much good/brilliant work done, so many breathtaking pictures that one cannot go for a week without seeing a picture that stirs you in some way.

The camera is unbeatable at capturing the moment in time. I am pleased that I have been involved in capturing many moments in my time through this hobby of photography. My collection doesn't tell of any world shattering events but each one has a story for me.