PUBLISHING YOUR OWN MAGAZINE

HOW TO GET STARTED

PAGE SEVEN

PUBLISHING PHOTOGRAPHS:

Photographs, especially those depicting school and sports groups, have proven to be a great asset to the continued success of my published magazines. Nothing captures the imagination of your readers better than a photograph depicting groups of people they may recognise.

Quite surprisingly, school photographs can be found dating back to the close of the nineteenth century but it is the ones dating from the middle decades of the following century that will generate the most interest among your readers.

My education began during the mid-1960s and I was surprised to discover that my Mother did not have any school group photographs featuring myself taken at any of the schools I attended. When I asked why, she told me simply that in those days she couldn’t afford to purchase them. In that respect you will discover that many of the photographs you are able to publish within your magazine will never have been seen before by those depicted on them. Sadly, many of the faces will no longer be with us but to those people still around the photographs will bring back many happy memories of their school days.

It will often be the case that photographs are submitted to you without any names giving the identities of those depicted but far from that being a disappointment to you, use it to your advantage by requesting that people write in with the names of those people they recognise. It is always a good idea to try to gain the involvement of your readers and request their support and this is one way of doing so.

A lot of photographs I receive from readers of my magazines bear the hallmarks of age and neglect and whether you attempt to enhance them is entirely up to you depending on the time you have available and the ability you have to do so. It often requires two or three hours work to conceal tears and creases on a photograph in poor condition and it has been said to me on occasions that such repairs often detract from the finished image, so that is something you will have to decide for yourself.

Providing the photographs are of sufficient quality, I normally reproduce school and group photographs to full-page (A4) size and each monthly issue normally contains several images.

Another rich source of images for you to publish in your magazine are postcard views. There can hardly be a single location in the country that has not featured on picture postcards at some time or other and while today it appears that only the most scenic locations and areas of natural beauty attract the attention of local photographers, fortunately in the early to mid-twentieth century there were people who took it upon themselves to produce a photographic record of less attractive areas and towns with an urban outlook.

In fact producing picture postcards was once a thriving business concern and many thousands of postcards were produced during the first six decades of the twentieth century, which have helped to document the history of our local buildings and the gradual development of our towns and cities.

Postcard collecting is believed to be one of the three largest collectable hobbies in the world along with stamp and coin collecting and you will find there are people within your community whose hobby is to collect images of the town as depicted on postcards. These people are often willing to allow you to copy their collection for publishing in your magazine or you may be able to purchase your own postcards for reproduction. The online auction site, Ebay, features thousands of postcards for sale every day and it is simply a case of searching for those from your own particular town and placing your bids.

It is almost impossible to determine the copyright of most picture postcards as many of the publishers disappeared from the scene many years ago and appear to be untraceable. I do not believe you will encounter any problems reproducing postcard views, especially those from the early twentieth century which quite often bear no publishers mark, but if you do have any doubts or concerns then leave it out.

One interesting fact about my hometown of Knottingley and worthy of mention is that during the mid-to-late-1930s there was an itinerant photographer resident in the town who it is believed went by the name of ‘Dak’ or ‘Dakky’.

Several stories exist about his origins and nationality, with some elderly members of the community believing that he was of German descent, while others believe he came from the Yorkshire area, although nothing is known about him for certain.

‘Dakky’ used to take high quality candid photographs around the town and of the workforce of various local industries. Each image was then developed within his own premises, (a small wooden hut situated alongside the Knottingley – Goole canal), and produced in postcard form, after being carefully inscribed with a complimentary caption as well as the year the photograph was taken.

By the end of the 1930s, and coinciding with the outbreak of the Second World War, ‘Dakky’ had disappeared - or at least his portfolio of images had ceased - lending some credibility to the belief that he was of German descent. Unfortunately nothing has been heard of him or his whereabouts since.

‘Dakky’ left being a rich legacy of stunning images of the town and its people and it is hard to believe that a man who left us so much has not been heard of since. A number of his photographs have been collected over the years and every once in a while a new one is located that we were not aware of. With no documentary evidence available it is impossible to determine the number of photographs actually in existence as not a single negative has ever been found.

It is worth looking into the possibility that perhaps your own town and its past inhabitants were once featured on a similar collection of images.

Of course, if you have any information at all about an itinerant photographer by the name of ‘Dakky’ during the 1930s-1940s I would be delighted to hear from you.

Michael Norfolk.