Drinks
Pub, Nottingham 1982. Part of the nightlife project but not used in the exhibition.
football in the Arctic Circle
No soil, no plants. Great effort to flatten an area for communal use in a village that is on the edge of the world. Ittoqqortoormiit in Greenland.
Continuity
This lady was part of the production team working on the Granada TV production of “Strike” about the rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland, filmed in Manchester in 1981.
I didnt disturb people as I photographed them as I was aware I had to stay low key as I documented the process of making a factual based drama. She is either working with the script team or is part of continuity to ensure elements match across scenes. It was a 16mm film production, sound was captured using quarter inch tape on Nagra recorders. Granada was a unionised company and I was asked if I was a union member by one of the crew, Adam’s dad (the writer) had invited us and we were just students with no intention of profiting from the images so we got a pass. Years later I think the photos would be of value to the crew and I would be very happy to share them, if you know this lady please let her know, would love to know more about her work.
influence
A rough sea on the coast of Cornwall, 1981.
I was there as part of a group of students staying at a cottage belonging to one of the lecturers. Above the fireplace in the Livingroom was a large grainy print of the coast. Roger Beacroft (the lecturer) speculated on who amongst us would be influenced by it. I did not disappoint!
35mm HP5 film is not generally a good choice for landscapes but its dark grainy nature worked well in this landscape.
Self Portrait 1982
Late night. Back in my rented room in Burns Street.
I had been photographing in the pubs and clubs in Nottingham for my nightlife project at college.
I had a few frames left so used them up.
The venues I photographed in were quite low light so the camera would have been harder to see.
A miserable day
Ormskirk Street, St.Helens, Merseyside 1978. Building site for the Nat West Bank.
Wearing a long coat, a head scarf and with a plastic bag in hand a lady makes her way across the road.
In photography it’s easy to glamorise, to photograph the extra ordinary. It’s harder to document the ordinary.
In the gloom and the cold I found a kind of beauty.
4th and 5th form official schools photographer
I never got into rugby myself but was fortunate to miss games periods to do photography. A side effect was to become the sports teams photographer for the school. All the moneys from the sale of prints went back into buying film, chemicals and paper.