Alan Burnett

What finer representation of 1950s Britain can there be?  It's the summer holidays and the family's annual week at the seaside (in this case, Bridlington in Yorkshire). The weather is such that plastic raincoats and heavy overcoats are standard issue. People sit on deck chairs and stare out at the grey, rain-soaked clouds. And the little boy smiles (yes, it is me)!

This is a photograph I took at a Yorkshire Miners' Gala parade in the early 1980s. Given everything that's going on at the moment, I suppose you could say it's allegorical - but I'll leave it up to you to work out the nature of the allegory. I just think that it's a pleasing photograph.

There should be a law stating that everyone has to send a picture postcard full of idle chitchat at least once a year. Forget your WhatsApps and your Emails, I'm talking about old-fashioned cards with pictures on one side and meaningless gossip on the other. Then, 120 years from now, there will be a treasure trove of social, economic and family history for lovers of ephemera to explore.

@TinDogPodcast Are you after modern photos or photos from the past?

@ABFixby Do you have any photos of brighouse park?

I've chosen to caption this photograph, somewhat provisionally, as "The Churchyard", because I can't remember which churchyard I was in when I took it. The photographs next to it on the strip of negatives were taken in Elland, but I don't recognise this as being part of St Mary's. I wondered whether it might be St Michael's in Haworth, but I can't be certain. Wherever it is (was), I rather like the photograph.

Did you ever get the feeling that you want to escape from the real world, with all its frightening developments and bizarre characters? Do you want to flee into a world of fantasy - to a time when gondoliers guided their boats through the Grand Canal at Brighouse? Fear not: your wish can come true immediately with just a tentative press of an A.I. button.

Looking back at this photograph, which I took nearly half a century ago from Blackley Road and looking down over Elland, I’m reminded of how the power station used to dominate the landscape. When I took the photo, the power station was relatively new - the official opening took place in 1961 - but it was already nearing the end of its life. Within ten years it had been decommissioned; within twenty, it had been demolished.

It's a photograph I have taken time and time again over the last half century: Britannia sitting atop her eponymous buildings in Elland. During the 1970s and 80s, the scene was stark - stone, soot slate and a few brave saplings. By 2016, when this version was taken, vegetation was in charge and Britannia wore a leafy crown.

I took this photo of my father around the time I was doing a photography course at the local Tech. We were studying lighting, and the homework was to produce a dramatically lit portrait. I achieved this with a couple of reading lights and an old blackout curtain. These days, all you would have to do is ask AI to create the mood. It wouldn't be half the fun, however.

This is a classic image of what has always been, to me, a classic pub. It's not the closest pub to where I live, but it's my local. It doesn't have the fanciest range of real cask ales, but I'll forgive it. It's undoubtedly idiosyncratic, but so am I. My picture shows a 1911 celebration at the Rock Tavern, Upper Edge, Elland. There will be another celebration there next Friday (the 15th), when the Friday quiz returns after a six years absence. I can't guarantee the sheep will be there ... but I will be.

Another image from that collection of old photographs I've acquired over the years, which fall under the general heading of "Found Photographs". As usual, the questions of who, where and when must go unanswered - but that means we can make up our own stories. These are four characters in search of a narrative.

A 40-odd year old photograph of me, surrounded by textbooks and typewriter, and captioned "Oxford, 1984" might suggest an involvement with some of the famed academic institutions of that city. In fact, we were simply staying with friends for the weekend, and the lecture I was writing would have been delivered in the far less distinguished quarters of Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

So I said to AI, "What if L. S. Lowry had visited Elland and set up his easel on Saddleworth Road, looking towards Elland Bridge?" "Give me a photo to start me off," said AI. "OK, here's one I took back in the 1980s. Can you do anything with it?" "I'll have a go," said AI. AI Lowry, that is.

My photograph of Halifax dates from the early 1970s and shows the town during a time of transition. Centre stage is the Homfray carpet mill (although by then it had become part of the Riding Hall Carpet Group), which ceased production not long after the picture was taken and was demolished by the start of the next decade. You can also see the course of the old railway line to Queensbury and the two power station cooling towers.

@lynnie26blue pigsinthewood.com

@ABFixby Oh my days! Does such a place exist? If the pigs are in woods, do you actually get to see some? It's on my list of to do's! 🐽🐖

I met this splendid fellow yesterday during a visit to the Pigs In The Wood Animal Sanctuary in Scissett, Huddersfield. When I asked him to smile for the camera, he delivered a look of such contentment and satisfaction that it was a pleasure to behold.

This photo has been in that suitcase of memories I call the "family archives" for as long as I can remember, and I always assumed the cake was celebrating the birthday of one of my relatives born in 1851. On closer inspection, it doesn't say 1851 on the cake - it says 85. Given that the photo must have been taken around 1920, that means I'm looking for someone born around 1835. I haven't found her yet.

The original

You can have great fun with artificial intelligence by asking it to transform a familiar picture of your favourite relative into an image of a 19th century Victorian gentleman - or whatever you like. More revealing, though, is taking a century old studio portrait and using AI to dress the subjects in modern clothing. My photo is a 1916 portrait of my grandparents and my mother (the little girl at the front). Put them in modern clothing, and suddenly I see my granddaughter.

It's the end of the month, and here is a path leading somewhere - but who knows where? Whilst this is true in a literal sense (I have no idea where I was when I took this photograph nearly half a century ago), it is also true in a wider, philosophical sense. Perhaps May will bring peace and understanding. Alas, I'm not particularly optimistic that it will.