Stepping Back in Time (2022)
01st February 2022
‘Silently I stood, just beyond a former cross-roads in an uninhabited corner of the countryside, listening. I carefully strained my ears and wondered whether I was too late to witness a passing stage coach, plying between London, Bath and Bristol. Sadly, I was too late. Probably, 200 years too late’.
Thus started a well-received article I wrote for the Macfilos website, published online earlier this year.
‘Stepping back in time’ described a quiet interlude of near silence, mentally reconstructing life in an earlier century. The location was very near where I live so, in a way, I was interpreting local history in my adopted new home area. It was based on reading the landscape and studying old maps. Anyone can do this, anywhere. Yet the temptation is to believe the old adage, that the ‘grass is always greener, elsewhere’. It seldom is.
(Autumn leaves add colour to this timeless Wiltshire Right of Way, once part of an established route, for passengers and freight, between Bath and London. The 'crossroads', mentioned in my heading reference, can just be seen in the light bar, just crossing the track, near the centre of my picture. It is all heavily overgrown, lending the scene an air of mystery. (2004 Leica Digilux 2))
(Conversion to monochrome, of the scene above, gives it an historic appearance, in tune with the theme of the article (Digilux 2))
My mind was already reconstructing life in the 18th century, and imagining the excitement when horse-drawn vehicles visited the former Bear and Bell Inns, both of which have now disappeared. They lost all patronage when better roads, and even newer intercity railways, took away much of the passenger and freight traffic. Just think of the economic impact of this change on allied trades and industry, especially those which supported such a way of life, such as wheel-wrights and carriage builders. Likewise, the decline in the need for horses, and all of those who supplied and cared for them. Progress unavoidably left financial and social stress in its wake and reshaped rural life.
(This old coaching information board is still attached to the archway of a former coaching inn in the Wiltshire town of Calne.(2010 Leica X1))
The illustrations I produced and selected for illustrative purposes, were taken on very early digital cameras which, for many people, have become museum pieces. Yet the landscape pictures presented do not betray that sense of historical technology. Modern digital processing skills breathed new life, and new meaning, into those slender low-resolution files. ‘Stepping back in time’ is also a phrase which, inadvertently, could be applied to the means I used to produce the accompanying photographs. That had not occurred to me at the time of writing my article. I had been delving into my image archives and selecting scenes taken with my now-obsolete cameras.
Early photographic digital cameras, good though they were at the time, were swiftly overtaken by new and superior computing technology. Excellent lenses, such as the Leica DC Vario-Summicron 7-22.5 mm f/2-2.4 (corresponds to 28-90 mm with 35 mmm full-frame format), enjoyed short production runs. The weak point was the 2/3" CCD sensor (the size of a little finger nail) which, though good in its time, was fairly quickly superseded by larger sensors with enhanced performance. Bridge cameras, such as the Leica Digilux 2, were replaced as users were tempted by improved models.
(A landscape view, further up the hill on the North Wessex Downs, showing rather better condition and the exposed seam of chalk, a geological feature of the Downs)(2006 Pentax K10)
However, the point I wish to make, is that despite its old and superseded technology, images from the Leica Digilux 2, and contemporary cameras by other major manufacturers, still bear scrutiny today. Pictures, made in the mid-Noughties, have immense value today, particularly for family historians. Viewers of my atmospheric leading picture do not care what camera was used. The image is an accurate record of a landscape scene which is timeless in its content and meaning. For many personal purposes, 5 mega-pixels is adequate. If proof is needed, many of my Digilux 2 pictures have been published worldwide over time, one in advertising not so long ago. Content and quality are the critical factors of most interest to art editors and viewers, not the size of camera sensors used. So, if you still have an old digital camera, enjoy using it from time to time.
(Higher up, a pedestrian track is revealed in a landscape bathed by late afternoon Autumn sunlight. Trees have become more sparse)(2004 Digilux 2)
The feedback I received, in published comments for my earlier article, amazed me. My short feature resonated with so many people, who shared their experiences of early life in the region. Some had family ties with Calne-based ancestors. But one respondent was different.
About thirty years ago, a young European journalist was so touched by his experiences of shared life in Wiltshire and elsewhere during his fact-finding tour around England, that he resolved to learn English. Now he writes interesting articles for Macfilos. My article, revivified his happy memories of that time he spent in Wiltshire.
For those readers sufficiently intrigued by my Macfilos article, here is a link: https://www.macfilos.com/2022/01/24/a-step-back-in-time/ A casual reading of the ensuing comments, adds a new dimension to the understanding and importance of memory-jogging narrative. I hope you find it appealing, too. If so, please leave a comment. Thank you.
Pictures and text are Copyright © David Askham, 2022