Father Browne

Father Frank Browne SJ
(1880-1960)
Click on any image for a larger version

I have never read any of his religious writings or heard any of his sermons. In fact, I have no interest whatsoever in them.

For me, he is simply a dedicated and pioneering photographer.

He achieved world fame for his photos from the first two legs of the Titanic's maiden voyage. It was only a refusal by his superiors that saved him from the last leg, which would most likely have meant we would have ended up with no photos at all.

Father Browne's room/lab at Emo (1931)

Photography was a passion for him all of his life and the above photo shows his room at the Jesuit house at Emo from 1930 to 1957. He had organised extra power points for his photographic equipment and also special blinds and curtains for his window so that it could be turned into a darkroom within seconds.

"Self under Anaesthetic" (1938)

But the photo above is really the point of my post. The ultimate "selfie". In 1938 he was taken into Vincent's Hospital for an appendectomy. He rigged up his camera in the operating theatre with a time delay on the shutter so that he could take his own photo while being anaesthetised. Now, that takes some beating for its day.

The Father Browne website is here. I have mentioned him before on this blog. And I would like to thank E E O'Donnell SJ and Messenger Publications for the above photos and information. The book is cleverly titled "The Life and Lens of Father Browne" and it is an inspiring read.

Myxomatosis

My previous post sort of linked the Titanic and Ballyhaunis. The Titanic got me thinking about Father Browne and I went to his site to check out some of his photographs.

He seems to have had a great grá for the old steam trains, a sign of a powerful intellect and great aesthetic judgement.

The above photo brought me up short. It is typical of a view I had many times when I was young and on my way from Dublin to Ballyhaunis. It is listed as being "the new diesel in 1953". These cars were unusual in that you could go right up to the front of the passenger section and, through the glass panel, get the same view as the driver.

This was very exciting for a young lad; apart from the view, you could watch the driver driving and effectively learn how to drive the train yourself. The view itself was marvellous. Much of the country was single track; this meant that sections were controlled by the staff system which added another interesting element to the journey.

But the view was not all plain sailing. The rabbits were all dying of myxomatosis and the view of them dragging themselves along, including onto the track to be mowed down by the train, was disgusting.

Rabbit meat which, like today's chicken, had been freely available and reasonably priced, just vanished off the butchers' shelves. Prior to the spread of myxomatosis the rabbits lived a better and more healthy life than the poor battery chickens of today. In all, a sad, sad story.

If you're interested, you can read about the demise of the Ballyhaunis signal box here. Gone the way of the rabbits it is, never to come back.

On a slightly brighter note regarding the chickens, I roasted a free range chicken the other day and you could actually pull the wishbone. Must have been very free range. Up to now, and unlike in the distant past (when I was young), the wishbones, and all the other bones, even in purportedly free range chickens, were coming apart in the oven. Doesn't bear thinking about.