James Hamilton

Curious to see what’s inside our new Anthotype book by @malinfabbri.bsky.social ? 🌿
It takes you step by step through the process – and a lot more!
Ready to learn? See:
👉 www.alternativephotography.com/anthotypes-c...

#anthotype #anthotypes #altprocess

Some recent nonsense.

Night-time photo of a main road in Birmingham. The road here is in a steep sided cutting. There is an indicator showing which lanes are available for traffic, and the lights of the cars become streaks from the long exposure. Lights from buildings in the upper distance.

Aston Expressway, Birmingham. My photo 1980.

For Henry Fox Talbot's birthday, my favourite of his prints - this magical glimpse through curtains out onto ships in the harbour at Rouen, 1843. To go with it, @roseteanby.bsky.social 's article on Talbot's Rouen for the Talbot Catalogue Raisonné blog - talbot.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/2018/03/09/t...

Some current work stuff

Three books: Francis Bedford "Cairo to Constantinople", Mike Weaver "The Photographic Art" and Vera Punter's "Whitsunday's Child: A Country Life in Pictures".

Also called in on McNaughton's Bookshop on Elm Row, who are currently offering 40% off any purchase of three books. So: Francis Bedford's glass plates of the Middle East; Mike Weaver on photographical portrait tradition, and a charming album of one woman's life in an English farming community.

Ink drawing of a young man standing next to a desk where an elderly man reads a letter. The old man's dog sniffs at the young man.

An old man by a fire contemplates a standing figure carrying a letter who has just entered the room.

Popped into the Scottish National Gallery to see David Wilkie's fine preparatory drawings for one of my favourite Scottish paintings, 1813's "The Letter of Introduction". Exhibition closes today, as do the Francis Cadell war drawings and Burns in art exhibs.

llustration from 'The Channel-Stane or Sweepings from the Rinks (Edinburgh: Richard Cameron, 1883)' showing curling stones and a curling broom in a winter landscape with a church in the background on a snow-covered hill. The sun is low in the sky showing that the day's play has ended. The title, 'The Roaring Game' is written in a fancy script

New on the blog: 'The Curious Case of the Missing Curling Stone' - a Tale from the Session Papers of @signetlibrary.bsky.social: www.kgbaston.co.uk/2026/02/05/t... #TalesFromTheSessionPapers A curling stone has been missing for three years, but now it's been found. Or has it?

Lovely to see this review of @books-borrowing.bsky.social! I'm so proud to have been a part of this amazing project. 📖 borrowing.stir.ac.uk

And a DELIGHT to read this review of us! Thank you, @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social ! 😍

Some recent work stuff:

We recently finished the research phase of our project on the archive of John Watson's Institution funded by the @oldedinburghclub.bsky.social Jean Guild awards. Dive in here: www.wssociety-heritage.co.uk/2026/02/02/t... Research by @kgbaston.bsky.social and @johockey.bsky.social

No - thank you!

The new (para)normal Reflections on ‘Chasing the Dark’ by Ben Machell

Over on ‘All Old Strange Things’, in my first free post of the year I offer some reflections on @benmachell.bsky.social’s extraordinary book ‘Chasing the Dark’ open.substack.com/pub/drfranci...

Collaborative working with challenging histories: the Railway Work, Life & Death project - Science Museum Group Journal This paper reflects upon notions of value for research collaborations with differing stakeholder agendas and suggests modes of working that could be useful to other academic/Galleries, Libraries,…

#ICYMI this week a new - FREE! - article was published.

It looks at the Railway Work, Life & Death project, and how we work. #Railway200

Read it now!

I spend $28,000 on Substack subscriptions An interview about my Substack extravagance by the excellent Anne Kadet of the terrific CAFÉ ANNE.

Speaking of Substack, I see your Advent Calendar there has been making itself felt: open.substack.com/pub/robertsd...

Planning to try organise a public screening for the 75th anniversary of the première, which I put in February 2027

Yes, that exactly. New appreciation now though: it's an exceptional post.

Absolutely tremendous piece here. "Incidental sound for the transition scenes was provided by the poet Norman MacCaig, who whistled refrains of a variety of the songs.." MacCaig was a teacher back then, but it's other (Norton Park) teachers, Jim Ritchie in particular, who brought this all about.

Well, FWIW.. It's in Alun Lewis "Letters to My Wife" (Seren 1989) and it's in Gweno's account of tracing his body. "Oh best beloved - only the long bones?"

It was a LONG time ago! I wouldn't have been able to tell a good biog from a bad. Will report if I find anything...

It's odd: seeing it now - it isn't quite the poem I remember. The one I recall, IIRC, involved Gweno Lewis saying to the dead Alun "Only the long bones, my love?" I read a Lewis biog many years ago and am now wondering if what I am thinking of is in there.

In "85 Poems" -

I've absolutely read it myself. I'll see what I can find.

..but his premises, 74 High Street in Bedford, would continue as a photographic practice for a further century, not being relinquished by the profession until 1961. Downes was Bedford's first really important photographer, capturing the town's transformational 1860s and 1870s. (Ends)

Cundall went on to make the astonishing full-size photographic reproduction of the Bayeux Tapestry, the Signet Library's erstwhile copy of which has recently gone to join the Tapestry at a new museum in Bayeux. Downes remained in Bedford until his death in March 1879.. (4)

His principal partner at the time however was the great Joseph Cundall, and one of the final acts of the partnership was to take the first pair of (known) photographs of John Bunyan's cottage in Elstow, one in summer, one in winter. (3)

Downes had an interesting career, partnering with the short-lived Richard Hundall and working with him on the famous 1850s images of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the epochal Britis vessel Great Eastern. (2)

A three-quarters sepia view of a country cottage with harled walls and a tiled roof. The cottage stands on an unmetalled road and has a sign over the door reading "Bunyan's Cottage". Two boys, one wearing a bowler hat, are visible in the garden to the left.

A statue of John Bunyan with people sitting on a fence immediately to the rear. In the background can be seen the square clock tower of Bedford's St. Peter's Church and the neighbouring Bury House.

Two of a group of albumen prints I've acquired with Bunyan/Elstow associations. Internal dating indicates 1874 to 1881. No photographer, but the likelihood is that these are the work of George Downes d. 1879. (1)