In my album of photos from Egypt, taken in 1941 and 1942, there are some photos of a monkey named Kan-Kan performing in the street, muzzled and held on a leash by a handler. When I went to my local zoo a couple of years ago, I took photos of animal handlers, such as theContinue reading “Black and white animal handlers”
Tag Archives: Black and white photos
365 Unusual Things: 232-238
232. There’s a guy living in his car in my street, parking often outside my house. The morning temperatures here are mostly below zero Celsius. This morning he started up the engine at 4 am, sat there a while, drove off, probably to warm up, and by 7 am he was back. 233. Saw anContinue reading “365 Unusual Things: 232-238”
Black and white ruins
A few years ago in Les Angles, France, near the Spanish border, I came across a collapsed cottage, its roof shingles caving in, door hanging off, woodwork tumbling to the ground. I took a photo of it, not because of the decrepitude but because of the colours. Every one of the dark grey shingles wasContinue reading “Black and white ruins”
Black and white war planes
Today I’m comparing a photo from about 1941 of a huge propeller plane in World War Two, probably a bomber, with a photo I took last weekend of an F-111C in the RAAF museum in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. I took the F-111 photo with my new camera, a Fujifilm X-E4. I’m no professional.Continue reading “Black and white war planes”
Black and white soldiers
There’s this photo of Egyptian soldiers in my father’s war album from about 1942 in which each man seems to be wearing his fierce face. The photo is blurry but the facial expressions are surprisingly threatening, an effect which I think is intensified by the dark shadows covering half of almost every face as theyContinue reading “Black and white soldiers”
Black and white old graves
In the album my father brought home from the Middle East in 1942 there are several photos of graves and cemeteries. The one I’m posting here is quite moving. It seems to be an impromptu grave made for a pilot in the north African desert where Australians were serving. I’m comparing it with a photoContinue reading “Black and white old graves”
365 Unusual Things: 176 – 182
176. In an electronically controlled public toilet, I pressed the door button to close it and a (male) voice said ‘The door is now locked. You have ten minutes.’ Then music played: What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love. 177. Practised street photography when hardly anyone was around in the ten-degree twilight, andContinue reading “365 Unusual Things: 176 – 182”
Black and white trams
A couple of years ago a tramway (or light rail) was built in Canberra for the first time. I recently took some photos of the tram as it waited for a young woman with a big dog to board, and then compared my photos with one from my father’s war album, showing some soldiers standingContinue reading “Black and white trams”
Black and white small boats
In 2014 on a visit back to Brisbane I saw a little boat moored near mangroves, with nothing on it but an old un-upholstered deck chair. I imagined the skipper sitting in comfort and drifting over the bay as he fished. A humble man who liked simple pleasures. I took a colour photo, but todayContinue reading “Black and white small boats”
Black and white carved stonework
I have this photo of the partial interior of an Egyptian mosque in about 1941, its archway and internal structures embellished with carved stonework. I don’t know the two soldiers in the image, but I bet they were looking at all this carving and painting with mouths agape. It’s a photo from my father’s WorldContinue reading “Black and white carved stonework”