#wmemory

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Some of the great portrait shots Dan Burwood took at the Sunday Car boot Market using a press camera - a large format view camera mainly used one hundred years ago. It still take a good shot, if a little more fiddly than a digital, or even a 35mm.  The long exposure time and process of developing adds a unique character to the photos it takes

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Breakfast should not be a competitive sport.

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These photos were kindly donated by Geoff Chambers. He is an 82 year old former meat trader who worked at the markets from 1960, long before the current buildings were there. He worked for a trader and then became a trader and then sold his business on and his son still works on the meat market. He has many artefacts from his days at the market (account books, photographs etc.) which he is keen to have absorbed into BMAG’s collection. As he said to me himself, there are probably not many of his generation still alive and it is vital that we record this integral part of Birmingham’s history before it is irrevocably changed.

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I’m always fascinated by the sheer volume of stuff at Smithfield that comes in and goes out on a daily basis. Literally feeding the city. People come from other places, like Nottingham, on a daily basis, just so they can get their hands on lovely, exotic veg and fresh fish.