TODAY’S PHOTOGRAPHS TOMORROW’S HISTORY
Why take photographs, well, today’s photographs are tomorrow’s history. The photographs taken today are the historical, nostalgic, old photos of tomorrow. That’s a fact! It came up in a conversation at one of our recent ‘Improve your photography’ courses.
At the time of taking those pictures, they were maybe just a quick photo, a snap. Potentially they can take on much greater significance over time. An event, perhaps a wedding celebration, a birthday etc captures friends and family in a moment of time. These sort of pictures take on a significant and nostalgic importance almost immediately. That’s a given!
A little more obscure are the photographs of buildings, streets, shops, factories etc. People going about their daily life. Buses, trams, trains etc. An example of this is the Clearway dredger. A resident of Whitehaven harbour for 70 years. Then just like that the familiar feature had gone. Suddenly, Whitehaven harbour had been dredged for the last time!
The occasional photos taken here and there of Clearway suddenly took on new meaning. Overnight they had become historical, nostalgic, old photos. Thankfully, I was one of those photographers who liked photographing this old friend as it went about it’s repetitive job.
CLEARWAY DREDGER
The steam dredger Clearway was a permanent feature in Whitehaven harbour. It was there day in and day out for 70 years. The Clearway dredged up the silt that the tide relentlessly washed into the harbour.
Clearway was built in Aberdeen in 1926. It came to Whitehaven the following year to start work. The Clearway was one of the last coal fired steam dredgers in Europe. Sadly, in 1992 Clearway was mothballed. Just like that, the regular sight of Clearway working away in the harbour had gone.
Despite a lot of effort by the Harbour Master Dave Allan a preservation society could not be found. There was no-one to look after Clearway. In 1998 crowds of well wishers saw the boat off. She was towed out of the harbour and down the coast to Millom. It was there that she was finally scrapped. No doubt a few people had a tear in their eye.
A Norwegian society who were renovating a 1908 fjord steamer called Oster bought the engines and in the summer of 2000 started sea trials in Bergen.
LOOKING FOR A PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE
Feel inspired to take better photographs ? If you are looking for a photography course in the North West and Cumbria please give us a call. We currently run photography courses for companies and individuals wanting to improve their photos. We are ideally based in the Lake District, Cumbria, and can travel across the United Kingdom as required.
CONTACT US FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Please contact us to discuss your unique photographic training requirements or if you just want some further information. There’s still the option of e-mail and telephone but there’s now the inclusion of an on-line enquiry form. It’s for those on the move that just need to make that initial enquiry and perhaps check out dates and availability.