Comments on: Colin O’Brien, Photographer

By: Eve

Eve — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 11:31:40 +0000

It’s so interesting to see old Clerkenwell Road & Victoria Dwellings, which must have been among the first ‘tenement’ type walk-up blocks of flats built to house multiple families – imagine the stairs!

Young Colin obviously loved to photograph his neighbourhood & it shows his deep affection for it. Thanks for the peek into the post war life.

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 22:43:50 +0000

More incredibly interesting photos, with an intriguing pathway to being a photographer. Impressed with the Leica too, as that wouldn’t have been cheap

By: Claire D

Claire D — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 08:04:57 +0000

I love these photographs by Colin O’Brien, I was a child in the 1960s and remember London back then, quieter and often shabby, but friendly. We used to play on bombsites too, we had a lot of freedom. History now.

By: achim

achim — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 19:14:32 +0000

Colin O’Brien, a gifted photographer, really! When you consider that he started at the tender age of 8. — I was, after all, at the advanced age of ‘already’ 12 when I took my first pictures…

Love & Peace
ACHIM

By: Keith John Hagan

Keith John Hagan — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 18:53:22 +0000

Magnificent. I love the look of surly defiance on the boys’ faces (the first shot), which reminds me, almost 80 years later(!) that nothing much has changed! A staggering body of work. I’ll be there on Feb 10th!

By: Debra. E. Sewell

Debra. E. Sewell — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 14:49:05 +0000

Spectacular article..His parents so loved and believed in his dreams as a child..Bought him that 2nd camera (they are known as the best). . I love how beautiful and clear black and white film is… I too had a Brownie camera. Thank you so much. All photos have stories in them..Also noticed the layers of clothes people wore as many times apt had NO heat so one always wears layers .

Thank you sooo much..

Debra

By: Dr Hilda Kean

Dr Hilda Kean — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 13:55:54 +0000

I always liked reading your account of Colin, who sadly died ten years ago. I too really like his images having some large prints hanging on my room’s walls. But the first image you comment on at the top, of the 2 Italian boys , is found much more widely.Some years ago I was editing a book The Public History Reader with my colleague Paul Martin and we really liked the image . Colin was happy to give us permission to use it. When launching the book at the Bishopsgate Institute one Saturday he came along and talked about the piece and others. Everyone loved this!

All wonderful images of people in the former decades of a rather different London…

By: Lynne Perrella

Lynne Perrella — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 13:30:55 +0000

“The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.”
– Reiner Maria Rilke

I love thinking about that favorite quote, as I imagine how it felt for the photographer to
discover this long-ago photo. (top) I think it must have been a moment of high emotion. In one discovery, he re-captured two friendships, rediscovered his old neighborhood, recovered a feeling of childlike experimentation, and re-experienced how it was to begin a lifelong interest in photography. For me, this post is absolutely full of resonance. (and I loved meeting those two
boys – they remind me so much of my husband’s group of street urchins and altar boys)

By: Rich Bee

Rich Bee — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 13:12:29 +0000

Apologies for being such an anorak, but in the photograph of the accident I’m especially taken by the ‘Highline’ MKII Zodiac, especially as it’s running whitewalls.
That aside, a superb selection of images. Thanks you for letting us see them.

By: JerryW

JerryW — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 10:20:27 +0000

Very evocative! Not too different from where I grew up, in Sheffield.
Wish I had £1 for every time I’ve seen that accident photo!