In May I visited the Haworth 1940s Weekend, having enjoyed it the previous year. These 1940s weekends are a great opportunity for street portrait photography.
Why I Like Haworth 1940’s Weekend
Much of the main activity of the weekend takes place on Main Street in Haworth. Main Street is an old street full of character. I’m sure it probably looked much the same back in the 1940’s and this helps with the sense that you are travelling back in time. A number of classic cars from the time are also parked towards one end of Main Street. These classic civilian cars and military jeeps will also appeal to some photographers but I generally concentrate on portraits of those people who attend in 1940’s clothing.
Like with other 1940’s weekends I have attended, Haworth also runs a steam train service. The train station however is a short walk from Main Street and I rarely bother to visit it. I find some of the other 1940’s weekends are better suited to experiencing the steam train element of such a weekend.
Also like many other such weekends there is usually a fly pass that takes place both Saturday and Sunday. This fly pass will usually feature either a Spitfire, Hurricane or Lancaster Bomber.
The following gallery is just a small sample of some of the portraits from the weekend. A greater selection can be found on my Facebook and Instagram pages. As always these are low resolution copies ideal for sharing for social media. They are not a high enough quality for prints though. I’m happy to share high resolution copies on those who agreed to pose for me upon request without charge.
One Issue Regarding Haworth 1940s Weekend
One thing that soured the weekend slightly for me was the fact that my Facebook account received a warning in relation to a couple of photos that I uploaded of men dressed in German uniforms. The individuals concerned were very friendly in agreeing to pose for portraits and were in no way glorifying Nazi Germany (No Nazi salutes for instance). The photos though did attract negative comments from one female on Facebook. All the other comments supported the photos and pointed out that this was all an important part of history.
Interestingly a few members of the cast of Allo Allo attended the weekend, and the actor Guy Siner was dressed in his German miltiary uniform from the show. Are we to assume that in today’s overly sensitive world that a photo of an actor in a German military uniform is enough for Facebook to ban someone from the platform?
