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Biography of Malcolm Archbald SMITH
[Ref. S.1]
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Section G : Photography
This is another major and enduring hobby of Malcolm's which has resulted in his having taken in excess of 30,000 photographs which are in the process of being indexed. He has kept all the negatives of these pictures since about 1954. Over the years he has owned a variety of cameras, the early ones being simple models. He then moved on the SLR cameras for which he also purchased a variety of interchangeable lenses ranging from Macro and fisheye to telephoto. He then had a compact camera but finally migrated to use his mobile phone.
Besides the usual snapshots that every family takes, Malcolm had embarked on a number of long-term projects. By his own admission, the quality of his photographs were never amazing as he concentrated more on recording what was there rather than looking for good composition. He did try to take a series of close-up photos of natural history subjects but that was unsuccessful.
Railways - This had been an enduring subject to Malcolm and he was interested in many aspects of railways. In terms of photography, the category of the pictures he took ranged from locomotives and stock through to infrastructure and he created a separate website to cover these interests.
The British Coastline - This subject as a photographic project came about as a result of Malcolm's love of walking. Each year, he and his wife would take their summer holiday in a different place so as to explore new territory, and it occured to Malcolm to attempt to photograph the coastline of Britain. Naturally, without some vigourous plan, it would never be completed and, of course, it never was. However, he did cover most of the coastline from Sussex round to North Somerset.
Post Boxes - Malcolm spent much of his working life travelling around the country. He noticed the wide variety of post boxes, and being a person who likes to collect or catalogue things, started to take an interest. He usually had his camera with him so started taking pictures when it was convenient. These were been put onto his website
Towns -Having an interest in architecture, Malcolm liked to look at the buildings in the older towns and villages when visiting. This led to his taking a comprehensive set of pictures of some unspoiled towns but it was a short-lived project. A similar unplanned project resulted from the many pictures Malcolm took of Verwood in the 1970's onwards, before the village was developed into a town. These have been put onto his website and gains interest as the town changes with development.