All Pictures by Norris Bridgens.
I was drawn into this amazing world by chance....March 2005, a visit to a Highland auction house, I noticed a flurry of activity at one side of the room on viewing day. There were people crowding round some black bound albums. I thought they were old postcards at first, but I waited my turn and eventually I got to look at one of the albums. I was entranced, they were full of old photos, but not your normal standard of photography, these were very special. The quality of the photography was incredible and equally incredible was that each photo had been beautifully annotated. Dates, places, times!, people, cameras used, paper used for developing, little stories, poems...... I was hooked. Each turn of the page brought nervous anticipation, what would I find next. The photos covered several years of holidays in the Scottish Highlands, but also shots of England, South Africa, New Zealand. This was something very special.
It was another two days until the auction and I could not stop thinking about it. I could not sleep with anticipation. I thought to myself, what will I do with these albums if I get them? Maybe I shouldn’t buy them. I went back for another look and the doubts were quickly dispelled.
On auction day, I was a bag of nerves. I went to the back of the room so I could scan the competition. The albums had been split into 2 lots, one with the largest and most detailed of the albums, the other lot containing the remaining 3 albums. This was not good. I had to get them all.
The auctioneer sat down at the podium and they were first up in the sale. The big album first. "OK, you’ve all seen these, £200 then? OK £100 to start." My hand shot up in reflex! "£100, 110, 120, 130, 140,150, 160...." The bidding went on. The first bidder dropped out and there was a moment when I thought I had got them. Then a second bidder came in, it went up for a couple more bids and he dropped out. " Are you all done then? I’m going to sell.." He hovered with the gavel for what seemed a lifetime, then BANG, the hammer came down! It was mine!
Now the adrenalin was really pumping, I had paid a small fortune for part of the collection, I now needed to get the other albums to keep it together. The bidding started lower on the remaining 3, "£50, £60, £70, £80, £90, £100, £110, £120......" Up and up it went. It was the same bidder who was against me, as the price steadily rose, I started sweating.... this was going to cost me a fortune.......then all of a sudden the other bidder pulled out and before I knew it the hammer was down. "together they go!"
So what to do with them? If I was being mercenary, I could split the albums up, sell them off individually, make a good profit. So I started looking at them in detail and it soon became evident that they had to stay together. It was a life’s work and I now had a responsibility to make sure they got the attention they deserve. So here we are.....a website, a CD containing the images to follow, an exhibition, a book, postcards, greeting cards, limited edition prints...the list goes on, but what I will not do is ever break up this collection, I owe the man that took these a lot more than that. He left plenty of clues to piece together his life and that’s what this is all about!
After getting the archive home, the quest was on to find out who the photographer was! There were plenty of photos and referneces to Lydia, so she was identified right away, however, I had to delve a bit deeper to find the clues that had been left to identify the man that put this together! There were several photos of him, either taken by himself or by Lydia. However, he called himself , “the old Maestro” in most of them. No name. I searched and searched. I found a photo taken by Roy Burnie, signed by him. Could this be the mystery genius? I found another photo of the “old maestro” with Bogle, the dog, entitled the 2 “B”’s. Burnie, Bogle, that fitted. However, something didn’t seem right.
I looked further. A letter from Pitcairn Island, addressed to Mrs B..something, I could make out the writing. On the rear was “Love from Norris”. It seemed very personal, it had been stuck in there for a reason. Then I came to the caravan photos. A couple of reprints had been stuck in. I ignored them at first, but later came back to them, it all fell into place. “Comfort in a Caravan, extract from an article upon a Scottish Winter Tour by the well-known Norris Bridgens, Esq. (Perm. Address) BCM/BOGLE, London W.C.1. Published in “The Caravan” July 1950.” I’d found him! So enjoy his photos. I have a feeling he meant the world to see them!
