Forgotten Images
When stone age man first discovered he could get a good meal in exchange for a flint axe head, trade became the foundation of society. Later, when he discovered he could get a better meal in the next valley, travel became an essential part of that trade. Eventually, weighed down with all those axe heads and somewhat out of condition due to all the good food, he invented transport. No fool our stone age man!
Today, transport, travel and trade are at the very heart of life as we know it. They are continually changing in response to new demands, fashons and trends. New technologies replace those we grew up with and we probably didn't even notice it happening.
Fortunately...........
For tomorrow's historians, somebody probably photographed the various aspects of the "3Ts", the roads, shops, factories and the transport that served them.
Unfortunately...........
Every week of every year, somebody, somewhere, throws away those "unwanted" negatives or slides. Perhaps they think they are of no interest? "We have the prints, why do we need these old negatives" Perhaps they can't find a new home for them? Somebody dies, a business folds, maybe someone simply looses interest. Either way the result is the same and those original images, all those snapshots in time, are lost forever.
So who are we - and why?
The purpose of our archive is to collect together as many of the surviving original images (negatives or slides) as possible, making prints available to anyone with an interest. Since stone age man wasn't exactly renowned for his photographic skills, we can only cover the last bit from the end of the ninetenth century.
Since 1996 we have collected together hundreds of colour negatives and slides as well as many thousands of original black and white negatives. These have come from both professional and amateur photographers alike, all with one thing in common, that they would like their work or collection to be kept together for the benefit of later generations.
We have probably "lost" ten times that number but any success, no matter how small, must be welcome.
To fund our work we sell photos to enthusiasts on a not-for-profit basis. Our aviation catalogue can be searched by clicking "AIR PHOTOS" at the top of this page. "ROAD PHOTOS" will (for the time being) take you to the general catalogue which includes plant, buildings and some ships and trains. For anybody interested in our latest additions, clicking "NEW STUFF" will enable you to find material added within the last eight weeks and includes both new additions to the catalogue and long-standing items that have recently been scanned.
