Paul Godfrey's Blog (11)

The Norfolk Chronicle of Saturday 14 November 1857 carried the headline:- A New Discovery in Photography . “The world is indebted to Mr. W. Olley, of London, for the greatest discovery which has yet been made in photography. Mr. Olley calls it the “Patent Micro-Photographic Reflecting Process.” It consists in fixing an impression of any object placed under the microscope glass, which is afterwards transferred to paper.” This article draws the…

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The Life and Work of William Russell Sedgfield, Pioneer Photographer by Hardwicke Knight was published in New Zealand during 1998 as a two volume limited edition of 200 copies. Does any member of this forum own a copy of this work? I am particularly interested in Sedgfield’s visits to the Norfolk seaside town of Great Yarmouth and his…

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In the Yarmouth columns of the Norfolk Chronicle dated Saturday 31st October 1863, the Great Yarmouth letterpress printer and stationer George Nall was advertising “NALL'S SIXPENNY ALBUM VIEWS OF YARMOUTH. PHOTOGRAPHED BY SEDGFIELD. Nearly 40 sorts. To be had only at Nall's Library. Great Yarmouth.”…

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Just after World War 2 the UK Developing and Printing (Photofinishing) trade was still mainly printing amateur snapshots by contact methods. But by the mid 1950s automatic projection printers had been developed and the so called “enprint” was born. At this time, in the UK, Kodak Limited had brought out their Velox Projection Printer and Ilford Limited…

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In the summer 1896 two strangers to Gorleston walked along the South Pier and set up a tripod mounted wooden camera and pointed it inland towards the harbour bend (see: https://youtu.be/ua2MStD2J00). By then the locals must have been used to seeing photographers like Alfred Yallop and James Liffen with their cumbersome mahogany and…

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The BBC’s Antiques Roadshow featured an English Pattern wooden cine camera believed to have been owned by Cherry Kearton. Expert Hilary Kay identified the camera as being made by the Williamson Kinematograph Co Ltd but this was based on the star trade mark that was on the lower film magazine. The upper magazine was different to the lower one. The camera had large hinges that I would not associate with a Williamson product. I wonder if any member of this forum can offer an expert…

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Harold White FRPS visited the village of Lacock in 1944 to undertake an assignment for the British Council to take photographs for a pamphlet about English village life. Followers of the British Photographic History Blog may be interest in viewing a new community web site called Lacock Unlocked where Harold White’s photographs are celebrated. …

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I have borrowed this negative from a local historian. It is in an envelope labelled “Bishop’s Bridge Norwich” and dated 1st June 1899. The negative measures 6x9cm approx and is on a translucent rather than transparent film base that I assume to be celluloid. The top and bottom edges are cut with castellations with processing marks on each castellation.

Has any member…

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An illustrated talk about the use of comic cartoon cut-out boards by the beach photographers of Great Yarmouth 1890-1965. Great Yarmouth born photo historian Paul Godfrey has been researching the commercial seaside photographers of the town for several years. His talk will describe the photographic methods used by beach photographers, what life was like for the photographic…

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Retired photographer Brian Ollington, who opened his Gorleston on Sea photographic studio in 1963, will be hosting a 5 day exhibition of his photographs at Great Yarmouth Central Library from Tuesday 5th November until Saturday 9th November. The Ollington studio took photographs of a wide variety of subject mater, typical of the work of a provincial photographer based in an East Coast town. From family weddings, to family pets and civic portraits, to industrial photography for the North Sea gas… Continue

Photographic researcher, Paul Godfrey, has written and published a small book,"Snapped at Gorleston on Sea", (ISBN 978-0-9926929-0-2) about commercial seaside photographers from the past who traded there. It focuses on Jackson's Faces and J Barker &…

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