Sepia Saturday 800 : SATURDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2025

 

It started as a joke way back in 2009. At times there were hundreds of participants and at other times just a loyal few. Sepia Saturday has continued, through good times and bad, providing a platform for people to share their photographic-based memories. I was looking back through the archives recently and I came across this "Sepia Saturday Manifesto" which I produced fifteen years ago. Reading through it, it still seems relevant today, so it is worth a reprint.

A MANIFESTO FOR SEPIA SATURDAY.

1. We belong to a favoured generation: the first generation of the digital age. Whilst our ancestors have valiantly attempted to preserve their own unique history in scraps of written narrative and faded and creased photographs, we have the unique ability to fix these memories for ever as our legacy to future generations.

2.  Scanning, blogging and digital storage provide us with the means of preserving the past, but we also have a duty to preserve the stories and images of those that contributed to our society as we know it. Whilst we can leave to academic historians the task of documenting the lives of the rich and famous, we believe that the most remote second-cousin and the most distant of maiden aunts has made a unique contribution to the lives that we lead. Each one of us has a duty to help preserve the stories of these builders of the modern world.

3. Whilst images alone are fascinating documents, images with words - be they simple half-remembered names and dates or gripping narrative histories - are even better. The synthesis of image and words provides the most effective insight into the past.

4. "Sepia" is an alliterative convenience rather than a descriptive criterion. Let our images be in sepia, in black and white or in full colour : what matters is the message and not the medium.

5.  We recognise that we have not only a duty to share our past but also to ensure that it is effectively preserved. Whilst images printed on photographic paper and words written in old notebooks fade with time, they have proved, in most cases, remarkably resilient over time. Perhaps one of the greatest dangers facing the millions of digital images and the endless pages of computerised words we produce today is that they can so easily be lost by the pressing of a wrong button or by the hacking of a troubled soul. We recognise and we accept our responsibility to back-up and securely save.

The two main principles of Sepia Saturday have remained throughout the last 800 weeks - SAVE AND SHARE. We have a duty to save and to share our photographic heritage. Therefore, for the eight hundredth time, I am inviting you to join in with Sepia Saturday by posting a photographic memory and adding a link to the list below on or around Saturday 8th November 2025.

Thanks for supporting Sepia Saturday for the last 16 years ... hopefully we will have a few more years in us yet.

Sepia Saturday 799 : Saturday 1st November 2025

 

As we approach our 800th week of Sepia Saturday, our prompt photo this week defies categorisation - it's just a splendid old photograph. If you are desperate for a theme you could look at ships, the sea, companionship or whatever. If you are desperate for the story behind this particular photograph you can find it HERE. Sometimes, however, it is enough just to have a great photograph that transports us back in time. That's what Sepia Saturday has been about for the last 799 weeks - and that's what Sepia Saturday will continue to be for, at least, the next 201 weeks (providing I survive that long!). Join us on Sepia Saturday by sharing an old photograph and adding a link to the list below. And take a look at what is ahead on Sepia Saturday:-

Sepia Saturday 798 : 25 October 2025

Flight SS-798 is ready for take off. As we taxi across the airport heading for the main runway we ask all passengers to fasten their safety belts, put their seats in an upright position, and turn off all mobile phones.  You might want to use these few final moments before we take to the skies for either reviewing your life and your overall contribution to the good of mankind, or posting an old photograph to the Sepia Saturday blog. You can do either (or, indeed, both) on or around Saturday 25th October 2025 and then adding a link to the list below. And if you look out of the plane windows you will catch a sight of what is to come in the next few weeks here on Sepia Saturday. Have a good flight.

Sepia Saturday 797 : 18th October 2025

We are going places by a coach and horse this week here on Sepia Saturday, and if you want to be specific, we are going down Manningham Lane in Bradford. Don't worry, however, if you want to join in the Sepia Saturday challenge, you don't have to come to Bradford, or even post old pictures of Bradford. As always, any old pictures will do, whether they are on theme or not. Just post the pictures on or around Saturday 18th October 2025 and add a link to the list below. And then take a look at what is coming up on Sepia Saturday - and note in particular that our 800th Sepia Saturday challenge is just around the corner.

Sepia Saturday 796 : 11th October 2025

 

Drive a car, take a carriage or fly a plane - it doesn't matter how you get here as long as you get to Sepia Saturday on or around Saturday the 11th October 2025 and leave a link on the list below. Don't forget to bring with you an old photograph which you want to share with your fellow enthusiasts and you can add a few words of explanation as well. We are going places this month on Sepia Saturday - so make sure you join us. And whilst you are here you might as well take a look at where we re going next.

Sepia Saturday 795 - 4th October 2025

 

We are going places at speed this week on Sepia Saturday. The speed, however, might just be dependent on how fast the little legs of the chap behind the driving wheel can. push along. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how fast you go, it is getting to your destination that matters. So, as Sepia Saturday motors towards its 800th week, why not join us by sharing an old photograph on or around Saturday the 4th October 2025, and then leave a link below. Where else might we be going in October - why not take a look:-

Sepia Saturday 794 : 27 September 2025

I decided that for October we should have a general theme of "Going Places" but looking at my choice of theme image for this week - the last Sepia Saturday in September - it looks as though we have already started on our journey. Of course, you don't have to be going places - perhaps you are just sat in a boat going up and down on the waves and feeling slightly sea-sick. Equally, you don't have to stick to the theme - this is Sepia Saturday where anything goes as long as it is old and photographic. Whatever your contribution might be, contribute it on or around Saturday 27th September 2025 and add a link to the list below. And then take a look at the places we are going to in October.