Fading images

Above is Birmingham timelapse from 7inch cinema – a bit of a treat for a Saturday afternoon. This incredible video was shared on Twitter this morning by wonderful Brummy twitter account @Brumpics.

In the 1960s and 70s research chemist and amateur photographer Derek Fairbrother made over 20 photographic time-lapse sequences showing the demolition of old buildings and their replacement by new buildings and road systems in Birmingham city centre.

This film screened as part of the BIRMINGHAM SEEN exhibition (Gas Hall, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 31st October 2009 – 3rd January 2010). The audio on this version was recorded in Chamberlain Square on 6th October 2009.

This reminds me a lot of the wonderful work done with historic ‘now and then’ photos of Derby by Andy Savage, which started a decade ago. Check here for an example, or browse the full gallery. I love Derby, so please do check that one out.

This entry was posted in News and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Fading images

  1. Edwina says:

    Why would you replace such wonderfully historic beautiful buildings like these with concrete ???? Words fail me. Just look at the beautiful brickwork and the soulless crap that they have replaced it with……

  2. Just Wow. Had to rub my eyes and replay that twice just to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.