My Photography has matured, looking back at the 1990s.
An attempt to tidy my study—otherwise known as the spare bedroom—did not progress far. I was quickly distracted by the first photo album I took down to dust.
Dating from the 1990s, it contained photographs from our time in Dortmund and Heidelberg, spanning the final years of the Cold War through to the early days of NATO’s post-Cold War reorganisation. I took few photographs of my military life then—partly for security reasons, but mostly because heavy armoured vehicles were no place for delicate optical instruments.
Looking back at those prints, I can see how much my photography has changed. In the days of film, every exposure cost money—film, developing, printing—so I took far fewer photographs than I do now. My aim was simply to record memories rather than to create artistic images. Photography was occasional, reserved for special events or travel, not part of everyday life.
The original negatives were neatly filed alongside the prints, so I decided to scan a few and view them through my current photographic eyes. A handful seemed worth revisiting, and I’ve included them in this week’s gallery.
5 films reviewed, I cannot estimate how many are still to be looked at.
In the blog below I take a closer look at a few of them—how they hold up today, and what they reveal about the photographer I used to be.
The Cold War - 5th Regiment Royal Artillery
My photographs of my workshop in Germany do not show any people, deliberately, as I was documenting the equipment and our working conditions but I notice what appears to be a deliberate avoidance of people.
The 1930s state of art workshop!
The workshop buildings were built in the 1930s as a German Army motorised unit workshop, the state of art in their time but inadequate for then. Our modern armoured weapon systems were repaired outside because they did not fit in the repair bays. The buildings were little more than a garage for the light vehicles.
My most expensive equipment was known as Diana (Diagostics and Assembly), a big truck carrying a complex array of early electronics. It too had to be parked and operated outside because it needed an isolated power supply.
An MLRS did sometimes ft in but the doors would not shut behind it!
My most expensive vehicle, 1990s electronic diagnostics and repair. Also too big to get inside, and had to be parked by the camp transformer.
Post Cold War
NATO reorganised after the end of the Cold War and I was posted to a newly formed Land headquarters in Heidelberg. My photos of here are largely touristy/post card style. Heidelberg is a very attractive old town on the river with castle and forested hillsides. It would have been a great place for street photography, had I known about that genre at the time.
I have learnt a lot about composition and exposure since these early “snapshots”.
The city of Heidelberg and its Castle viewed from across the Nekar River.
An amphitheatre in the hills above Heidelberg, although the area does contain some ancient relics, this structure was a Nazi vanity project. I wish the mother and child had been clearer!
Snow in hills above Mulhausen where we lived for 1 year, one of my early attempts at being “arty”. The original colour version is over exposed and grainy.