Due to the wondrous invention of Television, aka Goggle Box, (because we sit and stare at it) or Mad Relation (because it carries on chatting away whether you are taking notice of it or not) and it’s marriage to the web, you can now watch what you want pretty much when you want. So this week I have caught up with a bit of nostalgia.
When I was young, and on the occasions when we had a T.V in the house, my parents would love to watch a half hour programme called “All our Yesterdays”, it was about the old days and the war, as a child I found it excruciatingly boring, if my parents were alive today I’m sure they would love the fact that there is now a whole channel filled with such programmes.
However, now I am older, I find myself increasingly drawn to the programmes about the 60’s and thus it was this week that I saw the programme about the Beatles and their first trip to the States and the drama production about David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton. The Beatles film was original footage so the clothes, fixtures and fittings, equipment was authentic and the film was a real reminder of just how good they were back in the day when it was just mics and amps.
The Bailey/Shrimpton programme was a modern production but very well done, I thought, and extremely evocative of the time. Now that we have instant digital photography, so that you can see immediately if a shot has worked or not, a plethora of computer programmes to improve enhance and re-work the picture, it was a reminder of how things were back in the day. I’m not saying photography is no longer an art form but it is different now and especially the vision in those days because until the negs were developed and the rough prints made you never knew for sure how it would turn out.
My Dad was an amateur photographer most of his life and I remember the excitement as a child of helping bring the pictures to life. Our bathroom became his darkroom, with blackout curtains at the windows a long wooden shelf covering the whole bath and a special reddish light that wouldn’t damage the photos. It was totally claustrophobic and the air heavy with chemicals, health and safety wasn’t in it, and my Mum would ration how long I could be in there, but Dad would conspire with me for just a bit longer, just a few more prints. As the door couldn’t be opened until the process was complete and the photographs set we had to tell Mum, just a bit longer can’t let the light in yet!
Thinking back on it probably my favourite bit was watching the photos appear as if by magic but I enjoyed doing all of it. As far as I can remember once the room was sealed up the film was removed from the camera and wound into a large cylindrical piece of equipment to develop the negative, I don’t remember how long it took but I remember turning the handle on the drum. Once we had the negatives they would go into the projector a rather big bulbous affair that would make the picture appear on the base. The magic of this bit was that you blow up the picture to make it big or keep it small, a lot depended on what photographic paper my Dad had been able to get and what he wanted to print up. Once the picture was exposed onto the paper it was time for the magic chemical, mustn’t touch except with tongs, as the paper soaked in the shallow tray the picture would gradually appear as if by magic and then it would be rinsed and hung up to dry. A truly captivating experience as well as learning a bit of hands on science from my Dad.
Oh and tonight it’s “Meet the Midwife” another bit of history!!!
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