Long ago, on another planet (1973)

[David Paterson]

My recent trip to n.w. Scotland reminded me that many years ago, I started work on a book about that region. The book never happened and the work just got filed away and hasn't been looked at since, ie. for 44 years. I dragged some of it out of storage and made a few very quick scans (all from 35mm bW negatives - Kodak Plus X developed in D76, for anyone who is interested).

Drumbeg, June 1973, the sheep-shearing:

[armando_m]

I really like the portraits !

[gryphon1911]

Really lovely stuff there and thanks for sharing.    Just goes to prove to me that I still love how film renders.  Like the Kodak Plus X you are using here....I think it is a good pairing with the subject matter.

[golunvolo]

Those are very sensitive and emotional. Great capture of people. Do you have any relationship with them?

[Akira]

As I was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, where sheep was commonly seen in the suburbs, such scenes look very familiar, especially they are shot in the early seventies when I spent my naive years.

Thanks for remembering and sharing the images, Dave!

[David Paterson]

Thank you for your kind comments, Armando, Andrew, Paco and Akira.

Those are very sensitive and emotional. Great capture of people. Do you have any relationship with them?

No, no relationship. I stayed in their tiny village for about two weeks in 1973 and have been back there quite a number of times. I never saw any of them again, but while I was with them a strong bond of friendship existed.

As I was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, where sheep was commonly seen in the suburbs, such scenes look very familiar, especially they are shot in the early seventies when I spent my naive years.
Thanks for remembering and sharing the images, Dave!

I am also very used to sheep - my brother was a farmer and always had sheep; we usually have sheep in the field next to our house, and occasionally we have to chase them out of our garden; they do love to eat roses.   

[Bill Mellen]

 Beautiful work David,

I really like the looks of the scanned Plus-X and your processing.

[Hugh_3170]

David, thanks so much for posting these images.  They are a "memory lane" experience for me.  My father and his brothers were sheep farmers in southern NZ and your Scottish images remind me very much of the personalities that farmed near to where we were in NZ - not too surprising really as the vast majorty of them were Scots by descent.  I also agree with Andrew's comments re the film look.  Quite apt for this application I feel.

[Jack Dahlgren]

After 44 years I guess not many of those sheep are still on the planet.
Would be interesting to see how the young girl turned out.

[Jakov Minić]

Ah, those were the days. 

[Thomas Stellwag]

a wonderful set of images, beside the great portraits I like in the first this on sheep in the center, just jumping away
and yes, we have a lot of sheep here in our area. Now the discussion raises, how to protect them, as we get wolves back

[David Paterson]

My thanks to Jakov, Jack, Hugh and Bill.

After 44 years I guess not many of those sheep are still on the planet.
Would be interesting to see how the young girl turned out.

Probably most of those men are gone as well - most of them would have been in their 50s or 60s in 1973. The little girl would be around 50 now! I'm going to email a few of these to a friend who lives nearby to see if we can identify her (and some of the men too). I'd like to give prints to any of them who are interested, or to their children or grand-children.

Hugh - I'm glad that these resonated with you, and I realise from my own experience that events like sheep-shearing look pretty much the same all over the world. I once encountered a team of shearers who travel all around the world to wherever large numbers of sheep need shearing. This was in the Falklands Islands, there were six in the team (mostly from NZ) and they aimed to shear 5000 sheep that day. That's more than one per minute per worker for 12 straight hours; those guys were tough.

[David Paterson]

 Thomas - thank you - I'm glad you like them, and it's good to hear from you. I hope you are well.

[Frank Fremerey]

wonderful

[Mikes]

Wow, that's a fascinating trip down memory lane. Very interesting, no-nonsense characters who no doubt faced more that a few challenges in their chosen livelihood. B&W is so appropriate for those images - beautifully processed. You must have quite a store of interesting negatives!