A sequel to my piece about Francis Chrystal - considering a different kind of photographer in Scotland's capital, Robert Blomfield: open.substack.com/pub/lixmount...

Seeing your wife's pieces issued as part of enduringly important publications never, ever gets old.

It's only now I'm realising how significant vignetting was as a part of all of my childhood holiday photos.

Forty years after buying the cheapest plastic-lensed 35mm camera in the whole Dixons range, I took it to the Spanish City at Whitley Bay with a roll of Kodak Gold 400.

We're delighted to announce the completion of a cataloguing project led by Dr. Kit Baston to remap & record our unique and important collection of pamphlets and ephemera by the great Georgian Edinburgh eccentric William Mitchel, the "Tincklarian Doctor." www.wssociety-heritage.co.uk/tincklariand...

The entrance hall of the Signet Library from a 1925 Country Life photograph newly donated to the Library. The decoration scheme was put in by architect Robert Rowan Anderson in 1908 - in colour in Patrick Adam's 1920 painting on the right - which would endure into the 1960s.

..the work of many early photographers. @kgbaston.bsky.social and I prepared the material for display and thoroughly enjoyed chatting to our lovely guests before they moved on to the www.npg.org.uk to see their fabulous Alfred Buckham exhibition.

A real treat this week, a one-off photographic exhibition at @signetlibrary.bsky.social by @lixmount.bsky.social for @rpshistgroup.bsky.social This selection of our photographic collection featured our Hill & Adamson Album, negatives of Penicuik House, albums from the Roughead Collection plus..

Drainpipe shadows this morning, Boat Green.

One of the better afternoons of my life was spent in reading the final draft of @kgbaston.bsky.social 's book "Charles Areskine's Library: Lawyers and Their Books at the Dawn of the Scottish Enlightenment". Kit writes about this fantastic book 10 years on: www.kgbaston.co.uk/2026/04/10/h...

Two from Trinity, Leith's Victorian coastal suburb

No one took our "Edinburgh" bait!: it's New York, 1927, the Todhunter Building, designed to ape European late medieval structures, taken from a magnificent vol of pre-1929 American commercial buildings. Well done @ruinista.bsky.social for getting it absolutely spot on.

It feels like Prague to me - and pre 1906 when number plates became mandatory?

The buildings across the street feel very NYC to me, as does the street itself. I'd guess ... 1910s/early 20s?

It has bit of an Atget vibe. Paris in the 1910s?

Looks like the Canongate but I don’t recognise it!

@johockey.bsky.social and I were looking at this puzzle picture this morning. Would anyone care to guess the location and the date of the building?

'Lessay Abbey, Normandy, France' by Ursula Clark (1940-2000). Two of the recently-discovered images by the Newcastle upon Tyne photographer. The full story in my latest Pressphotoman blogpost. Link below.

The #BirdOfTheDay theme today is #WinterSurvivors - birds that remain throughout your winter season. The alternative is #corvids - birds from the Corvidae family. My choice today is my Little Egret friend. 🥰 #kentbirding #birdphotography #eastcoastkin

It's actually real now!

Fantastic piece here; the only things I'd add is to reflect on the gentle, affectionate nature of the satire; & that the accompanying texts (by James T. Callender?) are essential, and contain vast amounts of information and insight about individuals & society just not found anywhere else.

Spent part of @inpursuitusa.bsky.social launch @nyhistory.bsky.social with teachers looking at Rev-era documents, including this early 19th c. facsimile copy of the Declaration, set against the 1773 freedom petition by Peter Bestes, Sambo Freeman, Felix Holbrook,& Chester Joie from Massachusetts.

Something personal here, a repaying of a debt to an Edinburgh photographer of the pre-1939 era whose work helped me attempt my own projects and acclimatise to Edinburgh when I was first here. The (melancholy in places) story of Francis Maxwell Chrystal: lixmount.substack.com/p/francis-ma...

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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...

#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!

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

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.

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)

'Miss Ward, the greatest of all Lady Divers' from an 1889 stereo by Underwood & Underwood. A Pressphotoman piece about where it was taken and how it became a big seller. pressphotoman.com/2025/08/25/m...

Caroline Street, Saltaire, on a dark wet day in 2023

The Dunbar Street Fire Tower in clean modern brick, and, on the other side of the street, three shots of the paraphanalia and graffiti pertaining to the rear entrancrs to shops. Fountainbridge, Edinburgh.

As Bluesky's image posting is having difficulties today, even to the extent of site thumbnails, here are some photographs of Leeds taken last week on my image site: www.lixmount.com/England/A-Ne...

Kirkstall Abbey. James Walker Oxley 1855; my shot 2025. More shots from Friday's visit to the Abbey at www.lixmount.com/England/Kirk...

Some shots from Bradford and Harrogate during last week's heatwave: www.lixmount.com/England/Brad...

Shots from a visit to the alabaster tombs at Harewood House (and a couple of the house itself) www.lixmount.com/England/Hare...

Shots from a visit to the alabaster tombs at Harewood House (and a couple of the house itself) www.lixmount.com/England/Hare...