The one born in St.Helens in 1961.
In the 1990s I went with a collegue from Tony Stone Images to oversee the printing of the Tony Stone Images Catalogue. Most of the time was spent inside a huge metal building containig thunderingly noisy Heidelburg presses, we were there to check the printed results with the approved proofs to be sure colour was as expected.
A fond memory is hearing a heavy rainstorm thrash the metal roof and overpower the sound of the presses.
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.
Stock Photo taken on an island hopping tour of Greek islands and placed with The Tony Stone Photolibrary in the 1980s.
Mamiya RB 6×7 90mm lens Kodak EPN 6012 transparency film.
In the 1980s it was possible to make a living doing pretty much any kind of stock photography, even travel. I went on a solo holiday, just me and my cameras with no plan in particular. Travel and film/processing costs were easily covered by image sales at Tony Stone Photolibrary.
I have not been back since but more recent pictures of this area show great change.
Mamiya RB67 with 90mm lens Kodak EPN 6012 transparency film 6×7
Fellow ex Cowley pupil Philip 1982
We had all left Cowley School and gone on to various colleges but gathered in the lake district during the summer break to catch up. The gang had gone from the woods into a clearing, but Philip held back, and I saw the opportunity for a portrait.
Being in college was like an extension of school but in the near future we were going out into the world and making a life for ourselves.
Caught between the known and the unknown, looking towards the light.
I had been woken up by our cat Tiger Lilly and could not get back to sleep so I went for a walk in the dark December night with a light rain falling.
The tide was low so I walked from Sheringham to East Runton on the beach, I had a torch built into my hat but when the going was smooth I turned it off and found myself in the greyness.
I could hear the waves to my left but only see a thin line of lighter grey of them crashing. I wasn’t so much walking through a landscape as walking through a tone scape.
When I turned the corner from West Runton I could see the pier at Cromer, bright in the night. It was 5:37am
iPhone not film. If I did have a film camera with me I would have also needed a tripod.
A cup on the Formica top of a table inside a caravan in Wales.
Late 1970s.
Matt Lambert gets beneath his black cloth to check framing and focus on his 5″x4″ studio camera. I went to see Matt at his new home in Canada and we decided on a roadtrip into America to do some photography. Part of our journey was through the Olympic mountains in the Pacific North West of the USA.
In the Summer of 1990 I travelled to Poland with Adam. We spent some time with Adams dad Boleslaw Sulik who was making a documentary for the BBC on the political movements there (a hot subject at the time).
The film crew were good company but with me being ignorant of Polish politics did not know who is being interviewed here, questions have been asked on Facebook so come back for more info later!
Joining the crew to review the tapes later I remember being very impressed with the clarity of the video they recorded (though of course it was just standard definition).
In retrospect I realise I missed the bigger story of the political movements forming around the race to power and how it would effect the lives of millions of people. In 2021 we find Poland under the influence of right wing thinking that like communism before it sees a totalitarian way forward as the answer, how ironic.
Life within the sound of bells.
Mid 1980s trip to Portugal for some stock travel photography and a holiday. Portugal is unlike anywhere I have ever been. This was the view (possibly?) from the rented accomodation for the night. One night whilst walking the streets I was spotted by someone a little drunk, he stared at me intently and then exclaimed loudly “You have an English face!”
A gentle still day. The sea laps against the North Norfolk shore at Sheringham. Digital, not film, Lumix G7 shot processed as if it were film.
An early component of the Victorian revolution. Canals became a network that enabled a revolution. The revolution started in the North West of England and transformed the world.
Held high in the air this waterway crosses the road.
Unknown location but in the North West of England.
Minimalist and Brutalist architecture. 1980s.
A gentle stroll down the beach in Prestatyn, Wales with my parents and sisters. We came across this holiday camp. It didnt look particularly inviting but things were a bit like that then. This may of course have been taken after 1984 when it was closed down and used to train police in riot control. In 2001 it was redeveloped for housing so assuming foreign holidays are something of the past we need to get re-building.
My bedroom for the week on a family holiday in the small Welsh village of Nebo in 1980.
There was a quiet timelessnes to the room.
At the ago of 20 this was my last family holiday together. My father got on very well with a couple of local farmers who invited him to join them on a mole hunt, he didnt quite expect the knock at 5am to go out and do it but it all worked out in the end.
Old style wind towers. Taken on a road trip in an open topped car, Los Angeles to San Francisco, July 1991.
I was with two old school friends, Keith Hunt and Robert Williams. They could both drive so I was the backseat passenger who could enjoy the views. occasionally I would ask them to pull over so I could get out my Mamiya RB67 Medium format camera and photograph the sights.
These wind towers were beside the main highway in California, there seemed to be hundreds of them and we enjoyed driving the service roads to have a look. America really is a country of big contrasts, the congested freeways and the open wind farms were a lasting memory.
The Lake District, UK. Taken in 1995 and submitted to Getty Images where it began to sell in 1996.
Originally shot on 120 Fuji Velvia film this image was not manipulated other than changing contrast and reducing saturation (Velvia like Kodachrome before it tends to turn all images into a sunny day).
I have seen the image used in a few places, a front window display for Timberland stores and for the CD cover of “The best songs” by the 80s group China Crisis (https://bit.ly/2xTjhh8)
When I mention the use of the image as a cd cover in my workshops I say, “Im a fan and it would be good if the band were better known, though that might be just wishful thinking” – some people get it 😉
This is the original grade for the image from the period, done using Barco Creator software on a Silicon Graphics Indy machine.
I would probably do a softer grade if I were to work the image these days though that would of course take some of the drama out of it.
Mamiya 7 medium format range finder camera, 80mm lens, Fuji Velvia 120 film.
(Please note that I do not provide sharing links for commercial images on this site, these are for viewing on this website only If you wish to purchase a license to use the image then just get in touch)
My favorite trees in Sheringham Park. Digital Image (Panasonic G7). 2019.
Taken on a family holiday, North Wales. Approx 1978. Ilford FP4 120 film, Lubitel II camera.
We may not know, we cannot tell
