BUSWORLD PHOTOGRAPHY

I AM CHRISTOPHER LEACH THE ARTIST. I started this blog so that I can share with everyone my vast collection of transport photographs showing a personal and nostalgic view of the industry with images that span some 45 years taking in the U.K and some of Europe. I have no darkroom and so rather than being the perfectionist after tidying them up I upload the images warts and all, and even those that won't scan squarely or are scratched. In a way it adds age and character. You are all free to download these for your personal use but please remember I still own them and you are not just free to use them without prior permission for any knd of publishing. Click on images to enlarge them and if you want to see more leave your comments or visit my website for the mother-site with galleries including those Buses & Girls: PICTUREWORLD

Sunday 17 August 2008

The Holy Grail: Didn't know you were a RC: No I'm RN


Well not quite, but many wonder why we bus photographers take pictures in their quest looking for the perfect bus and maybe the best answer is because they are there. But there are some vehicles that turn up that might even stir the fascination of those who would not usually give a bus a second glance unless they were trying to cross the road that is. This venerable elegant old Volvo seen in the dry dusty town of Mertola I have shown before in a differnt view as it is a real favourite of mine. Probably too old to receive RN colours one can still imagine how No.9405 must have looked when it was new with that American Fifties automobile inspired grill. Though the antithesis of the more restrained British approach this flamboyant look was also widely to be seen in the countries of South America, the Far East and of course employed by the Japanese as a stylistic template as it's dated export cars and trucks laughingly first rolled off the boat. Indeed sophistication inspired by growth, exposure to the world media plus demand has brought backward countries like India into Today, but not so long ago park one of these in Delhi and they might have thought of it as their Holy Grail and asked, is it the new Bova Futura?

4 comments:

Artdesire said...

Again a great picture of a period that painting buses into a new RN livery was a time consuming job. Especially in the more remote areas. What we see here is one of the buses from the company with the poetic name Rodoviária do Sotavento do Algarve. Sotavento means something like the "side out of the wind", the lee of the Algarve. Contrary to Barlavento, where the company Frota Azul is ruling now. By the way, allthough rather old, there were buses of this type that were actually painted orange and white.

christopher said...

Thanks for your interesting comments Duarte

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