Cowley school

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.

So greatful to the teachers who had the patience to help me understand mathematics.  I won a school prize in the 5th form, £5 towards a book, I chose the focal encyclapedia of photography. A little certificate was pasted into the front of the book, the award was for “Progress”. I went from being very poor to mediocrity – a huge improvement!  If I had not gone to Cowley school I would have totally failed academically.

I was keen to study Photography after school and Trent Polytechnic in Nottingham offered a three year course in visual communications photography and film.

I turned up for an interview there with a very small portfolio of images, I was still at school and in retrospect should have done a foundation course at the local art collage before even trying there.

Euan Duff the course leader at Trent was a little hum and ha’ry about things till I showed him these slides and how I talked about documenting ordinary things around me. This was exactly the button to push with Euan (I found out afterwards) as he had undergone a journey of documenting the everyday since the 1950s.

A game of monopoly at Cowley sixth form centre became my chance to advance to Trent. When I told the Polytechnic I had only achieved one A level instead of the two required to join the course I was told to “Come anyway” a “get out of jail card” for me,, sometimes the dice are lucky.

http://www.euanduff.co.uk/

Chemistry lab in the newly mixed 6th Form centre at the old Cowley Boys site. Home processed E4 transparency film.

Cowley High School. Mixed 6th form class sometime between 1978 and 1980. Our master was away so we got to revise our coursework as the substitute teacher carried on reading his paper (no doubt lifted from his break period in the staff room).

French lesson in progress, Crowley boys school 1977 or 1978. Unseen by the teacher I got out my Zenith E camera and took a few shots. The shutter was loud so I’m not sure how I managed to take more than one before the teacher noticed but there are two adjacent negatives rather than one.

I generally sat at the back of the class to avoid being noticed too much by the teachers. Not that I was up to no good, I just didnt think of myself as academic. Taking photographs seemed meaningful though my activities seemed not to really register with others. I’m glad I took the picture as I dont think there are many images of live classrooms from the period, true documentary.

A later documentary project of a Nottingham school allowed me to take similar images of a real life lessons in a private boys school but the difference was I was there as an outsider and conspicuous, here I was part of the scene.

Possibly the only (or one of a very few) real life images of “talking at the back of a class”, searching for similar images on Goolge brings up stock images that have been setup and lack veracity.

A misty day at Cowley. The staff entrance at the front visible.  This area was “out of bounds” for pupils.

Friday 21st April 1978, quite a busy day for me, shortly after taking the class pictures in the quad at Cowley boys school I photographed Ray French demonstrating rugby techniques. This was for a book he was writing on the subject.

Mr French was my English teacher (not to be confused with my French teacher who was Irish ). Before being a teacher Ray French was a top level rugby player (both codes) as well as subsequent work as a BBC radio commentator for the sport. He has a wikipedia page here.

Other pictures from this session were to be my first published work in book form, my only previous published work being a news item in the local paper.

Taken after the class photos on Friday 21st April 1978. One day after receiving the O level exam timetable.
Changes were coming, one last chance to record the time.

Unofficial class photo made the day after we were given our O level exam timetable. One last bit of fun before we had to get serious. This is not my class, you can see that one which was taken first here: Form 5L You will notice that a few lads from form 5L have infiltrated the form 5W photo, this is the kind of thing that happens when you let a school boy take class pictures.

For some reason Cowley Boys school did not arrange class photos during the time I was there. This however was the period of punk and we did not need no official photographer to get the job done.

Form 5L, In one of the frames I’m holding my arm out to steady myself after running from setting the self timer on the Zenith E camera mounted on a tripod.

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Cowley Boys School, 1978-9. Sitting with some friends on the field on sportsday. In an ideal world we would be watching the events and joining in but this was not that.

Team photos taken at Cowley Boys School in the mid to late 1970s.
It was sleeting as I took the pictures. As always I shot a few frames of each team so as to minimise the chance of anyone spoiling the shot by blinking or gesticulating.

Some forty years after taking these images I can recover a time element by animating between the three negatives, a highish definition black and white video of a time gone.

A separate image from another day and using the side of the quad rather than the steps.