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3 A2 Photographic prints rather than screen images

I will be in St.Helens my home town this Friday (14/07/2023) to see the exhibition “Creative Roots” at the World of Glass Museum. I was kindly asked to submit some of my documentary photography work and it joins others across all media and arts that represent the creative output of native St.Helens people. Looks to be worth a visit. I will post the material from the exhibit once it closes on the 9th September 2023. Entrance is free.

Update: 08/11/2023

My A2 prints from the exhibition are back, nicely wrapped and undamaged. Many thanks to Kathryn Raven and her team at The World of Glass Museum for the opportunity to show them.
If you would like to read captions and the bio I sent to the exhibition then click here for a pdf: Stephen Johnson – Creative Roots

Guided by the universe

I dont show all my images here, some have meaning only for a small group of people.

Last week I was looking through some old pictures from my time at Cowley School in St.Helens and came across this picture of two fellow pupils enjoying a tea break in the sixth form centre. Not the best picture in the world but I was struck by the beautiful smile of the girl on the left. Her name is Jean Evans. Jean also went to my primary school.

I posted the picture onto the Old Cowleans facebook page for other to see and within an hour had a reply from someone who had the same day heard from Jeans husband of her death.

The news made me sad of course. The coincidence was striking. It had been a busy day and I should have been on a screen break, instead I looked through my old images and this one stood out and I wanted to share it.

I have not talked to or seen Jean for 43 years but in my mind I could have taken this picture yesterday.

Thank you for your lovely smile Jean.

Know your place!

An agricultural show in Somerset Mid 1990s. Canon EOS1 35mm camera, 50mm lens. Fujichrome Velvia film 50ASA.

As a small child growing up in the 1960s I saw around me echo’s of the old ways of doing things, a deference to Class, State and Church.

Part of the excitement of watching Monty Python on a black and white tv in the early 1970s was to see those corrupted institutions mocked for the thin charade they were.

A new Nationalism (National Conservatism) wishes us to return to a more hierarchical, passive and subservient mode based on a fictional “golden age” centered some time in the 1950s in which politicians are not questioned and everyone “knows their place”. This is dangerous thinking.

Swear an oath to a King? perhaps best not to.