One of the few positive things you can say about the Mail Online is that they come up with some great photo features. Such as this one. Newcastle in the 19th Century, beautiful and evocative photographs of life in this working-class city. Really bring it to life. Notice most of the kids are barefoot, dressed in layers of rags that were once smart and made parents proud. The poverty is as bare as the feet of the kids.
This was a world ripe for socialist revolution, how could Marx not have come to his conclusions from such a time? How could anyone have not believed that the great day was just around the corner - one more push comrades. But they never got it, it never happened. Not even close.
And here we are, more than a hundred and more years on, and it looks further away than ever. It is the children of the third world who bear this burden now. Out of sight, out of mind, the liberal social-reformers didnt like the smell of the poor under their own noses - but then as now, what happens in the third world stays in the third world.
Meanwhile, those who would push our children back into this poverty so as to satisfy their own obscene greed have never been so powerful, so sure of their right and privilege, and the hands of the clock are being turned back.
Do you really want to go back to these "good old days"? Dave and Gideon and all their friends certainly do. - The REAL SDL
Pictures of times past: Forgotten photographs give a rare and fascinating insight into 19th Century city life in Britain
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A curious photo archivist from Newcastle stumbled on an amazing treasure trove of street photographs which capture the city's Victorian residents going about their daily lives.
Aaron Guy, who works at Newcastle's Mining Institute, discovered the 300-image collection of early glass negatives after peering into a long-forgotten box.
He was moving some old furniture for the Society of Antiquaries when the innocuous container caught his eye.
Children gathered outside of the station hotel, Neville street watching a performance.
Women's work: Two Newcastle matrons pass the time over some knitting by the city's Quayside, while children loiter nearby
Mr Guy explained: 'The society were moving to a smaller building and were passing some of their belongings to other organisations.
'I was just being nosy really, peering into boxes, when I happened to spot that one contained some really old glass negatives. I thought they seemed interesting so we asked for permission to bring the plate boxes back to our office to have a proper look.'
Further inspection revealed a whole raft of lively, high-quality images of everyday street life, dating from at least 1880.
The shots feature a ragtag collection of ordinary North Easterners, and were taken at locations such as meat markets, fairs, and tiny corner shops.
Experts believe at least a third of the pictures were created by the same photographer, and while many of them depict life in Newcastle, the cache also includes scenes from nearby Tynemouth and Lindisfarne.
Scouting the wares: A young girl examines the window display of a city shop selling fresh veg, sunlight soap and sweets
Making their own fun: Children skip and play around a lamp post
Maritime legacy: Onlookers wait for the launch of a ship in Tyneside
While early photography was largely the preserve of the rich, this unknown photographer went out of his or her way to document the lives of the working classes.
The decision is all the more interesting because Newcastle was a thriving industrial centre by the 1880s, with no shortage of prominent people to photograph.
The city was also home to industrialist Joseph Swan, who in 1871 devised a method of producing dry photographic plates which removed the need for a dark room and made photography more commercially viable.
Up it goes! A doughty competitor tests his strength at the Temperance festival on the Town Moor, Newcastle
A little girl looses her hat, while men in bowlers listen to a speech at the Temperance Festival on the Town Moor, Newcastle
Starting young: A little girl selling cordial with meat sellers at either Paddy's Market or Bigg Market, Newcastle
Pondering the collection's origins, Mr Guy said: 'We know very little about where these negatives have come from.
'They were never catalogued and the society doesn't recall how or when it came by them.
'We aren't even completely sure whether they are one photographer's archive, or if they were produced by several individuals.
'Photography would have been a very expensive hobby at that time, but this person was shooting in a very contemporary way.
'Despite the cumbersome equipment he would have been using – a large plate camera, probably on a tripod – I would describe this as observational documentary, almost photojournalistic in style.
'The work doesn't look staged, but if it was then the photographer was doing things very differently from his contemporaries. This work feels less distant and more engaged than other series I have seen.
'It may have been someone with means, or a commercial photographer with quite a distinctive viewpoint, who decided that Joe Bloggs on the street was more interesting to photograph in his spare time than the high society of Newcastle.
'He was really quite ahead of his time in that respect.'
Earning a crust: A young peanut seller captured at work
Catching 40 winks: A man makes time for a nap in what was then the centre of Newcastle
The Society of Antiquaries is now carrying out research work in connection with the pictures, in the hope of figuring out where they were shot, and by whom.
It is also keen to trace another 15 boxes of plates which the Society sent elsewhere.
Mr Guy hopes the city of Newcastle will soon be able to share this insight into its history.
'I was really quite lucky to find this box,' he said. 'I don't know if someone forgot it or planned to pick it up later. The aim now is to date and catalogue the work, and then to put it out to other organisations in the city and hopefully get it seen, because it really belongs to the people of Newcastle.'
Having a chin-wag: Women chat outside caravans stationed at the city's Town Moor
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2122864/Pictures-times-past-Photographs-discovered-abandoned-box-fascinating-insight-19th-Century-city-life-Britain.html#ixzz1qf8UazgZ
I am very impressed! Watching these photos I remembered 'so trostlos und ohne Ende' So was their life I think...Hello from Russia!
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