The Largest, Fastest, most Luxurious Ship Afloat

This wonderful photograph of the RMS Empress of Britain, being completed in 1930 by the John Brown shipyard in Glasgow, was found via Twitter - a great resource for finding new and old photography. 

The image itself is impressive and was featured on the historical pics twitter feed, but the photo just had a short caption without revealing the ship's amazing history, for the Empress of Britain holds a unique record.

In 1930, the ship was launched and went to work on the busy Trans-Atlantic shipping routes, running from Europe to Canada during 1931 to 1939. At the time, she was the largest, fastest and most luxurious ship afloat nicknamed 'The World’s Wondership'. Probably the ultimate example of the 1930's liner reflecting the romanticism of the era, the Empress' real footnote in history however would occur during World War II.

The Empress of Britain was requisitioned as a troop carrier by the British government. Her time in service as part of the war effort was short. On 26th October 1940, the ship was attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft and set on fire. With most of the crew and passengers picked up by the Royal Navy, tugs attempted to tow the badly damaged ship back to harbour but a German U-boat, U-32 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Hans Jenisch, saw her and fired three torpedoes finally dooming the rescue effort. 

The Empress of Britain finally sank just after 02:00hrs off the coast of Ireland and after nine years of service at sea, entered the history books as the largest liner (42,348 gross tons) sunk by a U-Boat during World War II. She sits, upside down, in 500 feet of water with most of her deck missing due to the fire.

Photography on BBC2 WWI Documentary

Sometimes a photography commission comes in that really makes you think. A recent one blended two passions of mine together - history and photography.

At the end of November i supplied a couple of images for a documentary about World War I due to go out on BBC 2 next year to mark the hundredth anniversary of the conflict.

The programme called Long Shadow looks at the legacy of World War I and the far reaching consequences that have carried on through the generations. We continue to be haunted by it.

ClearStory who are making the TV documentary state on their website :-

'Tracing the legacy of the Great War through a hundred years and eleven different countries, historian David Reynolds explores how the war haunted the generation who lived through it and builds a powerful new argument that the conflict unleashed forces we still grapple with today.’

It certainly sounds like a fascinating watch. More details will follow nearer the broadcast time.

Another England

Another England is a series of four excellent documentary films made by Maxy Bianco and set around the town of Hartlepool located in the north east of England.

Viewing these films, lots of memories came flooding back. Hartlepool was where my grandparents lived so i got to know the place very well. The industrial landscape were always fascinating to me as a child, especially at night when Seal Sands would be lit up like something from a science fiction film. Only later did i discover that Ridley Scott had used that very same landscape as inspiration when he was making Blade Runner.

Each of the beautifully shot films takes a look at the people and landscape of the town. I especially loved the third film Black Beach  that looks at the “Tantobies” and their horses and carts, working hard to make a living from a coal-covered beach. Twenty years after the pits closed, the coal still appears on the beach. It reminded me of the great Seacoal photography work by Chris Killip shot over thirty years ago. I didn't realise that the 'tantobies' still existed or could still exist after the closure of the mines, but they do.

The superb Another England series can be found on Maxy's Vimeo page HERE

The Voice of Robert Capa

You don't have to go far on the internet to find a well known photographer talking about his work these days, but this week a terrific find was released onto the web - the voice of Robert Capa.

Found on eBay, the recording, a radio interview made in October 1947, was quickly purchased by the International Center for Photography who have now released the full 23:40 audio recording on their website. Robert Capa talks about his work, about the reviews of his book 'Slightly out of Focus' and more, but it is the insights into a couple of iconic Capa photographs that really makes the interview an insightful listen.

One fascinating aspect of the recording dealt with the image of the death of a loyalist soldier (seen above) during the Spanish Civil War. To say that Capa's story about that photo has a interesting revelation would be somewhat of an understatement. The recording, with details coming directly from the photographer, certainly does provide some good evidence that the falling loyalist soldier image is not a fake as some often allege.

The audio recording of Robert Capa talking about his work, photography and more can be found HERE

Pulling the Wool...

If you are allergic to sheep, Skye may be the last place you'd want to visit. They seem to be everywhere, little white slow moving blobs moving around on the side of cliffs, hills and mountains. Go for a walk and you are bound to find one, two or a whole flock.

Yet the sheep also act as a subtle reminder of the highland clearances where people were forced off the land in large numbers -2000 families in one day were not uncommon - the tenants shipped off to America, Canada or Australia to be replaced by the more profitable large intensive scale sheep farming. 

The very croft ruins that the sheep wander by and take shelter in, are a monument to the largely absentee highland lairds deciding to go with profit at the expense of the lives and culture of very own people. Sheep had a massive effect on the landscape and culture of the highlands of Scotland.

These days the sheep are part of the highland culture. Tweed, tartan scarves made of wool, blankets, sheepskin rugs are big business and popular with tourists.

Experiences in Colour

This short film caught my attention recently, not only for the great photography but also the insights from Bruce Davidson himself. Listening to a photographer of this calibre, you are always going to learn something.

How often do you 'misrepresent and misunderstand what you are looking at'? I know i do but it seems to be a common human trait that not many photographers are willing to admit to. We tend to jump to conclusions far too easily from behind the camera just because of what we see.

My favourite shot has to be the subway mugging photo... because it isn't a mugging. It's an arrest.

Flickr Free

This week i finally made a decision about Flickr and my Flickr Pro account. I cancelled it. Sometimes you just have to work through the details and come to a decision. So back to a free account i went.

I like Flickr and I'll continue to use the service but paying for it makes little sense now. I mentioned in a post back in May about how i thought the new business plan made no sense. Where was the money to come from if the free deal was so great?  For a number of years i had a Flickr Pro account with the benefits that came with it. The changes that took place at Flickr a few months ago mean that there really is no incentive to pay for the service. It's as simple as that.

In the list of new pro benefits, Flickr note that users have 'unlimited uploads'. To me that term is pretty much meaningless. The free account offers one terrabyte of storage that will be more than enough for me and probably most people too. To be honest i wouldn't really like the idea of storing one terrabyte of my hard earned images on Flickr anyway. It leaves far too much on the online system to loose. 

No adverts was another noted plus, but again the adverts aren't intrusive and it is certainly not worth paying the $50, or even $25 pro subscription, just to remove them. Even the ad free blurb has to refer to 'All the benefits of a free account' when listing benefits. It is hardly inviting people to pay! Back to the benefits of the free account many people will go just like i did.

So where will my money be going? Flickr's loss will be 500px's gain. I will upgrade my account there and upload more photography over the autumn and winter. A 500px paid account actually gives useful extra bits and pieces. As for Flickr, I really do wonder at the business thinking at Yahoo. One photographer going looses them $25 but how many others have done the same? Magnify that by a factor of ten, a hundred, or a thousand and the business income model starts to look rather sick. Or maybe they have a cunning plan!

One Ocean, One Breath

Ever fancied exploring the ocean on a single breath? No, me neither, but a series of beautiful images by free diving photographers Christina and Eusebio Saenz de Santamaria really do show the magic and freedom of diving up to 82 metres on just a single breath.

The free diving duo have a great website packed with remarkable underwater photography that can be found HERE