Were off to see the ...1940s

Once over a car journey to some event or another, Sam told me - she’ll be thrilled I’m sharing this - that as a child, she was utterly convinced that the moment in The Wizard of Oz when the screen changes from black and white to colour was literally the moment colour burst across the land. Bless her!

Fast forward many decades, and this year we attended Welshpool’s annual 1940s weekend through our business, Mogwai Media. Anyone who knows me knows that my natural home (unlike the other half of Mogwai) is on a hill or photographing the night sky, covered in mud.. that feels more natural to me than capturing people - but something about capturing this event caught my interest.

Being there felt like stepping into a DeLorean and hurtling back from 2025 straight into the 1940s. I wanted to capture the essence of the weekend, the feeling of the time itself. At first, I thought I would shoot in colour and then convert the photos to black and white. But I discovered that simply toning down the saturation and vibrance had an even stronger effect.

There’s something about muted colour in a photograph. People often say the 1980s were full of bold colour and vibrance—but modern photography tends to swing the other way, overcompensating for what some feel is a lack of colour in today’s world. By bringing the colour down, I’ve found the photos convey more meaning and emotion—they feel closer to the moments themselves.

Seeing the weekend through my lens reminded me of that childhood idea of colour bursting across the land—except this time, it wasn’t sudden, it was subtle. By softening the colours rather than stripping them away entirely, I felt I was capturing not just the look of the 1940s, but the mood, the atmosphere, the little moments that made the weekend feel alive.

Photography, for me, isn’t just about what the eye sees—it’s about what the heart remembers. And sometimes, just like Sam’s childhood memory of The Wizard of Oz, it’s the quiet, unexpected moments that leave the biggest impression.