The one born in St.Helens in 1961.
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.
Atherton Street, St.Helens. 1979.
I took this during an exchange visit in 1979. Musicians and choir from the Fanny Leicht Gymnasium in Stuttgart were visting Cowley school and they were all staying with local families.
I was walking with a large group of the visiting pupils into the town centre; they were due to meet the Mayor. The Germans were non plussed by the tiny houses and how old they were, a bit of a culture shock for them it seemed.
I had some nice chats with this chap about photography. I may of had a Pentax K1000 camera by then (or might still have had my Zenith E). His camera was more impressive! It would be lovely to get back in touch if he ever sees this. stephen@copyrightimage.co.uk
The rain was coming down hard. As a young lad in the late 1970s I
t was not long before I tried a frame of film in my cheap Chinese Seagul 203 camera.
I had just completed a Saturday morning photograhy class in the days when local councils held free education classes for its people.
View from Chalon Way Car Park, St.Helens approx 1977.
Taken on a Saturday morning walk from the photo department of the Gamble Institute. Given freedom (and film) to walk around town and document what we saw. I headed to the multi-storey car park and photographed Pilkington Glass works next to St.Helens town centre.
Looking down I thought it also worthwhile at the ground based car park at the rear of the multi-storey. Of interest is the oil patches on the unoccupied bays, cars in the 1970s all seemed to slowly leak oil as part of their functioning.
A well turned out couple at an event at the Fleece Hotel, St.Helens. Circa 1979.
My first commercial work (being paid money for photography) was the team photos I shot at Cowley Boys School. My second experience of earning an income came in the 6th form when I got a job as a social photographer at the Fleece hotel in St.Helens town centre.
No, not a shot of a failed Mars Lander.
Abandoned carcass of a black and white valve TV set, possible early 1960s vintage. Photo approx 1976/7. Taken in St.Helens on some wasteland, possibly after some street demolition. This shot reminded me that I used to enjoy taking the backs off old TVs to poke around and see how they worked, surprised I’m still alive thinking about it now.
