The Wonderful Talbot Image Archive - 60 years of photojournalism

[Nick Walker]

On today’s 'Flog It' programme on BBC One there was a fascinating 10 minute slot on Wally Talbot and his son who were press photographers in the Blackburn area. The collection has been donated to Blackburn Central Library.

Some wonderful pictures captured over 60 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=650&v=mqFZQWz83a4&feature=emb_logo

The picture of the vicar leaning over the fence talking to a worker sharpening a scythe in front of the church is so quintessentially english - a beautiful picture from a bygone age.

http://cottontown.org/ImageGalleries/library/The%20Talbot%20Collection/Mitton%20%201955%20001.jpg - looked wonderful when it was presented larger during Flog It.

http://cottontown.org/ImageGalleries/library/The%20Talbot%20Collection/1964_09_t18_shire_drinki001.jpg

http://cottontown.org/ImageGalleries/library/The%20Talbot%20Collection/Great%20Harwood%20Show%20002.jpg - On the Flog It show they panned in close on the little boy with his head on the chair to the right of the picture which was amusing - unfortunately looses the same impact on the small jpeg.

There are so many stories behind the pictures - The picture of the pensioner presenting multiple military crosses including a Victoria Cross (0.19 sec slot on video - photo montage) fought in the Boar war and WW1. He was short of money and was offered the equivalent of 10 years wages for his VC but refused to sell it. A local was so embarrassed the pensioner was unemployed he was offered a job which lasted 36 years!

[Rob C]

On today’s 'Flog It' programme on BBC One there was a fascinating 10 minute slot on Wally Talbot and his son who were press photographers in the Blackburn area. The collection has been donated to Blackburn Central Library.

Some wonderful pictures captured over 60 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=650&v=mqFZQWz83a4&feature=emb_logo

The picture of the vicar leaning over the fence talking to a worker sharpening a scythe in front of the church is so quintessentially english - a beautiful picture from a bygone age.

http://cottontown.org/ImageGalleries/library/The%20Talbot%20Collection/Mitton%20%201955%20001.jpg - looked wonderful when it was presented larger during Flog It.

http://cottontown.org/ImageGalleries/library/The%20Talbot%20Collection/1964_09_t18_shire_drinki001.jpg

http://cottontown.org/ImageGalleries/library/The%20Talbot%20Collection/Great%20Harwood%20Show%20002.jpg - On the Flog It show they panned in close on the little boy with his head on the chair to the right of the picture which was amusing - unfortunately looses the same impact on the small jpeg.

There are so many stories behind the pictures - The picture of the pensioner presenting multiple military crosses including a Victoria Cross (0.19 sec slot on video - photo montage) fought in the Boar war and WW1. He was short of money and was offered the equivalent of 10 years wages for his VC but refused to sell it. A local was so embarrassed the pensioner was unemployed he was offered a job which lasted 36 years!

Yep, those were the days all right.

Interesting to hear him say that no, he doesn't go out with a camera these days - nothing much to photograph.

Crowd sourcing, I suppose, replaces local shooters.

I think that far more devastating than the actual changes in the way of making photographs (professionally) is that so much local business infrastructure has simply vanished without trace, which was partly why we took the chance to leave and try living abroad. There was precious little left to lose in my area and interests, and had it not been for calendars, there would have been no real money anymore; the fashion trade was a fond memory. I started on my own in '66, but had I started in '80 there would have been not a chance of making it. Most of the bigger studios I used to know were no longer around in later years when I'd go back on visits to Scotland.

That has always been the situation faced by economies outwith the London catchment area: everything eventually drifts southwards and because of that, there is usually enough work there to satisfy the London operators.

Everything changes.

[KLaban]

Yep, those were the days all right.

Interesting to hear him say that no, he doesn't go out with a camera these days - nothing much to photograph.

Crowd sourcing, I suppose, replaces local shooters.

I think that far more devastating than the actual changes in the way of making photographs (professionally) is that so much local business infrastructure has simply vanished without trace, which was partly why we took the chance to leave and try living abroad. There was precious little left to lose in my area and interests, and had it not been for calendars, there would have been no real money anymore; the fashion trade was a fond memory. I started on my own in '66, but had I started in '80 there would have been not a chance of making it. Most of the bigger studios I used to know were no longer around in later years when I'd go back on visits to Scotland.

That has always been the situation faced by economies outwith the London catchment area: everything eventually drifts southwards and because of that, there is usually enough work there to satisfy the London operators.

Everything changes.

My agent was concerned that I lived 20 miles from central London. What chance then for those north of the border?

[Rob C]

My agent was concerned that I lived 20 miles from central London. What chance then for those north of the border?

Very little. At the time I was parting company with my then stock agent, I went to see Susan Griggs who was both a stock agent as well as a personal photographer's agent. (She went on later to run a stock library called Comtrust, I think.) I was already living in Spain at the time, and she said she'd be happy to handle my stock, but that it was impossible to represent anyone so far from the centre of where it's at. True, and always understood, but hope is strong. As for moving to London: we had a three-bedroom house in Glasgow that was in a good area: its market value in Scotland wouldn't have bought a garage in London.

To think that London's East End was a better place to start if you wanted to work in Vogue!

:-)