Auctioned 1940s Photographs Transformed into Picture Book

A collection of photographs from the 1940s, acquired at an auction, has been compiled into a new picture book. Damian Sealey, proprietor of Absolutely Nice Vintage in Carlisle, discovered the box of house clearance photographs at H&H Auction House and successfully bid on them. He subsequently located Jon, the grandson of the photographer, Norman Fairlam of Haltwhistle, Northumberland, learning that the images were captured in Tripoli, Libya, and depicted members of Fairlam’s family. Jon, Mr. Fairlam’s grandson, characterized his grandfather as an “avid photographer,” an RAF squadron leader during World War Two, and a “super grandfather.” Mr. Sealey stated that he and his business partner, Mark Howlette, have a practice of developing and showcasing forgotten cine film on YouTube. “We just want to preserve people’s memories – they were taken for a reason,” he commented. He mentioned that the collection’s “nice composition” particularly appealed to him. “We thought he had a good eye. We didn’t know if he was a photographer, but they were all intimate, quiet moments, a lot of them, not posed,” Mr. Sealey explained. He added, “The sort of candid snapshot style we like.” The photographs were taken in Tripoli, Libya, during the late 1940s, a period when Mr. Fairlam was engaged in an airport project there. The subjects of these images include his wife, Bessie, and his son, Malcolm. Mr. Fairlam later worked at Newcastle Airport, where he retired as head of air traffic control in the 1970s. He passed away in 2005. Mr. Sealey noted that he received a significant response after sharing the photographs on social media, with many individuals encouraging him to publish them as a book. He further remarked that the resulting publication, titled Lot 455, serves as a means of “preserving history.”