I am fascinated by "found photographs." These are photographs that have become separated from their context - they are anonymous, orphaned. We don't know who the people are in them, and often we don't know where they were taken. They can of course be mined for clues, but we very rarely find out everything about them. They are therefore typical archaeological artefacts. Each records a moment in time, but we have to carefully examine and research it if we are to learn anything about that moment.

Found photographs can be sourced from junk shops, antique shops, charity shops, rubbish skips and sometimes from the roadside. I've only just begun to study them, and this is just the beginning of my sharing of what I stumble across.

I wonder if my interest stems from a vague (and almost certainly vain) hope that someone will one day stumble across the collection of colour transparencies I lost in the late 1980s. Not to mention the exposed film I left beside the Coast to Coast footpath in 1998! Ho hum...

Last updated: 26th April 2018

• Somewhere in Europe
• On the beach
• A pocket full of pens
• Geraniums
• 1909
• The new pedal car
• A new baby
• Shutters
• An urn

The Rescued Film Project

This project brings to life fascinating and often melancholy photographs that were never developed and printed, that the photographer (and often subjects) never saw. The project also has a Facebook group.