Favourite obscure photographs

[George White]

And not just random celebrities together, but pictures that capture a time and a place.
Janet Delaney's photos of 1980s San Francisco.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I can't remember if I posted this here but this is a fantastic thread of 'slice of life' photography of Black britons going about their business outside of London.

https://twitter.com/karisbeau/status/1284421237129781248

[Dr Trouser]

Same era, but i love Raymond Depardon's trip to Glasgow (not knowing it or even speaking english) in 1980.

Some right belters in there

[Captain Crunch]

I wouldn't know if a photo was obscure or not sorry but I enjoyed this one, and the others, from the Martin Parr Manchester show last year:

[El Unicornio, mang]

Big fan of older New York people photos. Stanley Kubrick took these in the 1940s so maybe not massively obscure but I always liked how the couple look kind of out of time.





I could spend all day just looking at pics of people on public transport pre-90s

[Sebastian Cobb]

Same era, but i love Raymond Depardon's trip to Glasgow (not knowing it or even speaking english) in 1980.

Some right belters in there

Yeah I love stuff like this.

I got the Kubrick book for Christmas that features his work for Life magazine. There's some good stuff in there, I've not actually looked at it properly as it's a big book and I opted to leave it at my parents and get it when we see each other at another time rather than taking it on a busy christmas train.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Another good photobook I have is Richard Billingham's Rays A Laugh. That features photos of his alcoholic/neglectful parents. It's pretty desolate but captures things well, I don't think they should be seen as bad people, just out of their depth. Eventually the concept was taken on to the wonderful film Ray and Liz.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Bottom right one is a belta. Laughed.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Ha my housemate had a similar photo of me lying on top of a bag full of golf clubs after getting too drunk to properly work the stairs and sort of going 'fuck it, here will do for now'.

[Hand Solo]

It's pure John Waters meets The Enfield Poltergeist stuff.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Not too obscure, but Shirley Baker did some wonderful photos of Salford as the old slums were swept away in the 1960's onwards









Heres what she had to say about Salford...

"Everyone knew about these communities. People passed them daily on the bus, but they never went inside. People were turned out of their homes. Some squatted in old buildings, trying to hang on to the life they knew. They didn't have much and things were decided for them... I wanted to do something. But what could I do? I decided I would go out on to the streets capturing this upheaval, photographing people I came across... I couldn't help it: around every corner there was someone different. It became an obsession"

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's pure John Waters meets The Enfield Poltergeist stuff.

Haha!

[buzby]

I could spend all day just looking at pics of people on public transport pre-90s

Tom Wood, a less-famous contemporary of Martin Parr who I've posted about on here before spent a lot of time taking photographs on public transport around Merseyside in the 1980s and 90s (while he was commuting form his home in New Brighton to his job in Liverpool Art School):




He has had a few exhibitions and associated photo books based on his public transport photographs - Bus Odyssey, All Zones Off Peak and Termini

[Pink Gregory]

Incredible photo, that

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

What's the (I think it's a woman) doing in the background? A yawn, a gurn, or is that her natural resting facial expression?

[Hand Solo]

What's the (I think it's a woman) doing in the background? A yawn, a gurn, or is that her natural resting facial expression?

It's Phyllis Minton, Phil's mum.

[Buelligan]

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Aberdeen football casuals on the way to Celtic Park, 1987.

[Sebastian Cobb]

That's grand.

The foreground is the main event, but there's also something about old Citroen's that makes me happy. I'm not a car nut at all and generally want to see less of them in cities etc, but they nice, odd looking things with cleverness going on underneath the metal, to me they represent an aspirational and slightly esoteric line of thought that has been killed off in favour of uniform blandness and cost cutting and disposable mass production that goes way beyond transport that is ultimately bad. God I sound like a right prick there.

[Better Midlands]

Incredible photo, that

Yes, I'm getting Ernie Barnes vibes

[imitationleather]

I fucking love this stuff. The Rio Cinema has an amazing archive of photos of Stoke Newington in the 1980s, which is where these Skol ladies come from.

Also this woman, who looks a lot like my great-grandmother (I think all old ladies back then looked like this, though), enjoying the gamblers:

[Sebastian Cobb]

Yes, I'm getting Ernie Barnes vibes

DIY cabs in the back screams dub.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I fucking love this stuff. The Rio Cinema has an amazing archive of photos of Stoke Newington in the 1980s, which is where these Skol ladies come from.

Also this woman, who looks a lot like my great-grandmother (I think all old ladies back then looked like this, though), enjoying the gamblers:

I like these things too. I know people turn their noses up at some of the photos of slightly grotty scheme pubs but they were social hubs that served the community and also reflected a time when towns were planned to actually serve the people that lived there in some capacity beyond living in little boxes and going to work.

[Better Midlands]

I really like pictures of the original Teddy Boys from 50's East End London

[imitationleather]

I like these things too. I know people turn their noses up at some of the photos of slightly grotty scheme pubs but they were social hubs that served the community and also reflected a time when towns were planned to actually serve the people that lived there in some capacity beyond living in little boxes and going to work.

I guess if people have no experience of that world they might umm and ahh over whether or not this stuff is poverty tourism (although I would say it definitely isn't). However the main reason I love these photos is because they look exactly the same as my memories of my childhood.

[Icehaven]

I really like pictures of the original Teddy Boys from 50's East End London

Even with the clothes and fags and haircuts they look about 12. Were they actually about 8?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I guess if people have no experience of that world they might umm and ahh over whether or not this stuff is poverty tourism (although I would say it definitely isn't). However the main reason I love these photos is because they look exactly the same as my memories of my childhood.

Similarly, a while back going through some crap I'd shoved into a bag for life and ignored through several house moves because it was mostly old paperwork with a bit of assorted crap, I found a photo wallet of photos that I must've saved - they're not from a single roll of film as some are from primary days, some of friends in middle school and some of me in a bike race as a teenager (in a Mongoose racing top that the creases fold to just say "MONG" up the side in big letters). Anyhow, I found this which Ithink fits in well here, a photo I as a child took with a shitty freeby camera (the haze at the top isn't a reflection, it's a light leak of some sort on the print) of a school fete from a bygone era including pints and ashtrays:



Still really like it.

[DrGreggles]

I need to dig out a photo from a family holiday when I was about 4.
Almost certainly taken in Blackpool* and the expression of foreboding in my face told the story of all my summer holidays over the next decade.
That said, I'm the one who looks the least suicidal.

*ALL our holidays were to Blackpool

[Sebastian Cobb]

I need to dig out a photo from a family holiday when I was about 4.
Almost certainly taken in Blackpool* and the expression of foreboding in my face told the story of all my summer holidays over the next decade.
That said, I'm the one who looks the least suicidal.

*ALL our holidays were to Blackpool

In amongst the aforementioned photos there's a really nice to me (but a bit grim in a middle-class mediocrity kind of way) one of my mum and dad proudly standing next to their pride and joy, their newly bought Conway Camper, with my mum's MG Metro in the background.

[Better Midlands]

Even with the clothes and fags and haircuts they look about 12. Were they actually about 8?

They were generally about 13-18, the girls looked great too