Ernest (Ernie) Charman, has been a long time enthusiast and photographer of Southern England buses, and local Brighton area topograhical subjects, both through early Black and White and his well known colour negatives through the 1970's in particular following such themes as;
- Southdown Motor Services
- Brighton, Hove & District
- Brighton Corporation Transport
- Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company
- Sussex Independant operators
- Local Brighton, Hove and Portslade shops, street scenes and the unusual
- The 'Big Bands' in their heyday at dance halls like the Hove King Alfred and Brighton Regent.
Not until 1993 had anyone been able to purchase any quantity of material from Ernest (Ernie) Charman since his last days stalling at bus events in the South in the mid 1980's. It was our small retail unit close to the Brighton main shopping area that Ernie Charman looked us out & we began buying his offerings, where as an enthusiast the webmaster of this site had bought his images in small prints from his stalls much earlier on BH&D. As we progressed we started to be offered his B&W negatives around 1997, then colour negatives by 1999. The only slides ever offered by Ernie Charman have been commercial slides or those by another well known Brighton & Hove enthusiast, Dale Tringham. During the time since the cessation of Ernies stall at bus rallies and the Gricerama at Hove Town Hall, he has not sold any images as prints to anyone or if so nothing in any serious bulk, and certainly nothing in negative form but ourselves. Anyone that does find anything of his without his stamp or ours will have bought an unauthorised copy.
Until July 2010 none of this amazing colour library of Brighton and other Southern England images taken by Ernest (Ernie) Charman, had yet been sold by Dinnages or by Ernie Charman in 6x4 size, only ever seen in the old postcard sized prints at the pre-1980 sales he was attending, and through his postal service.
The B&W images in the BW Series are available on the stall and eventually here online. The colour views were always from negatives, and never slides, so anything found in 6x4 size will be copies as we have seen some in more recent years. We now own the exclusive commercial rights to this material and will not hesitate to persue those making profits out of this part of our library without both reference and reward to Ernest (Ernie) Charman.
Eventually all the new printing at 6x4 size, is being published only through our postal Photo Newsletter, so if you are interested in obtaining these in the future, find the Newsletter link top left of every online shop page.
The current Newsletter photos are not available on the events stand until that issue has been in circulation for a year then only the remaining prints offered through the events stand, maybe some also available here online.
