A TREASURE-TROVE of images of Worcester as never seen before are featured in a new book from city journalist-turned-author Bob Blandford.
Hundreds of photographs of old Worcester, digitally-enhanced and superimposed onto precisely the same scenes today offer a detailed modern snapshot of Worcester in Victoria’s time.
In addition to more than 400 exclusive photographs, ‘Bob Backenforth’s Worcester Pubs Then and Now Vol III’ also breaks new ground in content and design, with the 484-page book’s graphics alone accounting for almost a year’s work.
Speaking to the Observer, he said: “I set out with the view that once you’ve seen it, you’ll never view Worcester in quite the same light again. I don’t believe anyone’s ever attempted a book like this before.
The hi-res images were downloaded onto one of the two Apple Macs Bob runs side-by-side and Photoshopped into the original Victorian photographs drawn from a variety of sources.
“Some of the ‘new’ old photographs took several hours to complete – a few involving two or even three re-takes to make sure the angles were spot-on,” he said.
“If the angles didn’t match, the result was a complete dog’s dinner, so it was back to the streets to get it right.
“And then there were other factors. The number of trees that now get in the way; the sheer amount of traffic meant I had to be out and photographing as soon as it was light; cars and lorries parked where they shouldn’t be; people who feel the need to walk in front of the camera just at the critical time and, of course, the shocking summer weather.
“I can pin-point the number of days good enough for the quality of photographs I needed to six or seven” he said.
“In the previous books, the design took me about a third of the time of the writing. You can gauge how much it was, considering each, including the new one, contains about 250,000 words. In this one, the design took three times as long as the edit”.
Bob’s 250,000-word fourth book is available as a companion to his previous best-sellers examining the city’s love-affair with its 656 inns, taverns and kiddly-winks or beer-houses over half a millennium.
- ‘Bob Backenforth’s Worcester Pubs Then and Now – Volume 3’ is due to be published next week.
