The legacy of Eric Oldham

John Hillier visited the branch in March with a presentation on the legacy of Eric Oldham, a photographer and painter active from the 1940s to the 1980s..

Although an accomplished photographer, little of of Eric Oldham’s work was published.  Both Eric and John lived in the Manchester area and first met when John was at school; they lost touch, and when he learned of Eric’s passing John tracked down the collection and decided that the images deserved a wider audience.  The result is a book ‘The Eric Oldham Legacy collection’; John’s talk to the branch featured a wide selection of previously unseen  images from the book, both photographs and paintings.

Most of Eric’s photography was done in the Manchester area during steam days, and we saw a wide selection of  locomotives and locations.  He also travelled widely around the UK and the show included images from every region of British Railways.

The standard of photography was superb – not ‘standard’ locomotive views, but including background and people that captured the essential flavours of their time.

Alan Burgess