Forget Me Not

Today Brad and I took a drive to Bradford for a visit to the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television. It's a gem of a museum. We saw a special exhibit entitled "Forget Me Not" which examined the relationship of photography and remembrance. The photos in the exhibit ranged from early daguerrotypes to Victorian photos framed with elaborately woven human hair to contemporary scrapbooks. A simply marvelous collection. We also paused for a brief talk about the Cottingley Fairy photos. The photos of purported fairies were taken by two young girls, cousins, from Cottingley village, just outside Bradford. The museum has two of the cameras the girls used and copies of some of thier fairy photos. Later we went to TV Heaven on the fourth floor to watch a 15-minute documentary about the fairy photos. The documentary, made in the 1960s, features interviews with the cousins who took the photos. The eldest maintained their story was true her whole life. The younger one ultimately confessed to the hoax after the death of her older cousin. We also strolled through the main photography exhibit and the exhibits on television, animation and optical illusions.