Click, a photo taken. Hello, look at us. Here we are, together. Momentary exuberance, pride perhaps, frozen in time long before the invention of the automobile, telephone, radio or airplane.

You may ask yourself, where was this photograph taken? And why? Who were they? What kind of life did they lead? These depictions of same-sex bonds appear genuinely heart-felt, committed. The emotion seems, for the most part, a pure, deep, fervent love. Strong and lifelong. Were these individuals more than just good friends?

Unidentified people in unspecified places at unspecified times, captured by anonymous photographers. Unknown sitters: intriguing. No longer in frames or albums that once cherished them, no longer within carefully hand-written letters that went through a slow (and potentially dangerous) postal system.

The photographs collected here were intended to be treasured by those they were made for, a small circle of friends, a certain coterie, or them alone.

Sometimes, on the back of an image, there is a name with an age and a date, sometimes a telling communication, hastily written - and provocatively. Sometimes a collectable stamp, an interesting postmark.

Many indulged their wildest fantasies with theatrical costumes and props in early, makeshift photographic studios. Subjects dressed as gun-toting cowboys, 'gents' in top hats 'n' tails, as pierrots.

Intimate, tender, even protective bonds were undoubtedly strongest in the army and navy; a little comfort surely went a long way when confronted by the threat of annihilation in the worst possible circumstances.

Same-sex couples, together in the brevity of youth, the uncertainty of war, in an age of other modes, other laws, when people of a homosexual disposition were under social pressure to be inconspicuous and discreet in their affection.

Subjects consciously, often wilfully, had their photograph snapped to have their friendship documented. Relationships that could not, perhaps, be trapped in the cage of language or even sexual acting out, only documented in black and white. Gay men and women were a niche clientele, often standing proudly before a camera to document their 'special' friendships with a photographer who'd keep their secret 'safe'.

Many of the visuals were clearly taken at the height of the Victorian cult of friendship, a time when intense and even passionate bonds with members of their own sex were thought highly of. Same-sex love became demonised in 1895 at the trials and subsequent imprisonment of Oscar Wilde.

I'd never planned on becoming a collector. It began, as obsessions do, quite by chance with a lucky find at a flea market.

I pretended to appear disinterested as I shuffled through a pack that was nothing but stained and dented studio shots of men in couples. Soldiers, sailors, university students and 'theatrical types'. Whilst a large percentage of these men resembled each other as brothers might, many didn't. In the main their ages didn't seem quite different enough to indicate the blood connection of a father son relationship.

I looked through another pack: women dressed 'butch'. Some decked out in men's suits, some in army uniforms. Another pack: women in party dresses, sports attire, the near total concealment of period bathing costumes - not such a far cry from the fast-skin Speedo outfits of today, as sported in at the recent Olympic Games. What these images had in common was that they were heart-warming visuals, pictures of people who were quite obviously close. More than just good friends? All became mine for a mere three pounds. An absolute bargain.

Back home, images spread over my living-room floor, expressions of defiance, affection and love moved me. Men, their limbs intertwined, with hands and arms resting on each other's knees or thighs. Women, dancing together, gazing into each other's eyes, sometimes embracing... posed in the 'friendship tradition' manner.

What moved me was the close proximity of these individuals. There they were, as if brought back to life for my eyes only, sitting still, staring directly ahead: dear friends. There is, of course, the aspect of the photographer's eye to consider. Many a photographer is guilty of manipulating a subject or subjects to suit his or her own personal tastes and needs.

Most of the subjects were documented in the form of 'real-photo' black and white picture postcards, a format so popular at the start of the twentieth century. Brothers, sisters, best mates, lovers... whatever the relationships or our interpretation of them, someone somewhere had spent a lot of time and maybe money putting together this abandoned collection. It was a collection that I soon began to expand. With visits to flea markets and regular purchases at specialist photographic fairs on an international basis, the various categories began to swell.

I placed a series of adverts in the monthly publication 'Picture Postcard Monthly' and suddenly I was inundated by dealers who sent me pack after pack of visuals on approval. I soon became totally addicted to the buzz of expanding the collection with affectionate couples and this made me question my motives, made me assess and evaluate what was driving my enthusiasm.

Rescued, enigmatic objects of abandonment, such those collected here, represent a mysterious terrain which is so difficult to decode. Whether the men are cowboys cavorting at an all-male dance stag night in the US or army buddies showing off in impromptu acrobatics beside a cooling lake, or women holding hands atop a garden fence, the easy camaraderie and uninhibited feelings communicate as intense. What is for sure is that these ambiguous artefacts, which through death or life's vagaries had endured, stimulate a wide variety of responses from viewers.

What kinds of relationships do these found photographs truly depict? Who knows, impossible to tell? A camera is as capable of spinning an illusion as it is of holding up a mirror. The spectrum of possibilities is wide: fathers and sons, teachers and students, brothers, sisters, cousins, 'special friends'. Only the people who were there know the full story. Only the subjects knew completely who they were, why they had chosen to be photographed together. We, the viewers in another time, another world, are left guessing.

Unlike today, same sex love was commonly expressed in a physical though not necessarily sexual way. Men walked arm in arm together, danced together and often shared a bed - sleeping arrangements in which embraces might have held more than the occasional homoerotic desire or intent.

It has to be said that some of these scuffed, orphaned images are of couples that are obviously brothers, sisters, and soul mates. Others, one can instinctively identify, are remembrances of 'special friends', and lovers. It is these found images which have a truly proud and distinctive air to them that are a far cry from the highly contemporary lesbian and gay images which bombard us from the 'circuits' of New York City's Chelsea area, San Francisco's jaded Castro district, Sydney's Mardi Gras or the scenes dotting the UK, - such as Birmingham's Hurst Street and the beehive of bars and clubs around manchester's Canal Street, London's Old Compton Street, the after hours clubs of Paris and Berlin.

There is poignancy to the photographs seen here, the subjects are now all very aged, or long gone. These photographs pop up at flea markets, in shops, on e-bay.

Many of the images reproduced here, however, are proof that gay and lesbian lives and culture didn't suddenly come into being at the end of the 60s. These photographs are a vital piece of our heritage. They prove we had the courage to be ourselves even in the most oppressive of times.