The Prisoner

An abandoned room at Portmeirion Village 1982. “The Prisoner” starring Patrick McGoohan was filmed there and it had a profound effect on me as a very young boy when it was transmitted in 1968. It was exciting of course and the high tech of the time was a draw but it was the concepts and meaning behind the surface that attracted me. No 6 -McGoohans character in the series was not the traditional hero type figure, the series played with the idea of the individual and society. “Who is number 1?” – “You are number 6!” it was flagged at the start of evey episode!

Visiting Portmerion on perhaps my last family holiday in 1982 I was really pleased when I climbed a staircase (I wasnt meant to climb) and found this scene through the glass of the door. 24/7 monitoring of the prisoner was central to the series and this speaker on the cabinet and pens strewn on the floor looked like a low tech version of that.

In retrospect I can see how No 6 could be described as a hero figure by Ayn Rand, certainly problematic. Thankfully in 1973 I was similarly thunderstruck by a very different man: Jacob Bronowski in his 13 part documentary “The Ascent of Man” which contains some of the most emotionaly powerful and humanistic moments on TV.

Retouching the past

Not my picture. A print from 1959 of my mother and fathers wedding.

As a child, perhaps 5 years old I found the picture and used a blue biro pen to scribble on it. I clearly remember doing it. I liked doing it.

When my mother and father found out there was hell to pay.

Some 58 years later I use a pen again (a wacom pen on a wacom tablet) to undo the damage.

 

 

Keith Piper. Artist. 1980

Keith Piper, on the site of abandoned houses about to be demolished in Hamden Street, Nottingham. 1980.

Keith was a fellow flatmate at the student accomodation just down the street from here. I had asked Keith if I could take his portrait as I had the loan of an old MPP 5×4 view camera and wanted to try to do a portrait with it. Rather than the clinical look of a studio I thought it would be good to have a more interesting background.

It was inevitable perhaps that putting up my old images from the past would help me reconnect with people. My first ever photo course project was to photograph “where we lived”. This is probably the Polytechnic version of “What I did in my holidays” as it kept us out of our tutors hair whilst they got ready for the new year. The result was the flat 8 project.

The project has become more valuable with time, the appreciation of the guys I shared the flat with and then recently finding out what happened to them as they reveal themselves 44 years later. It turns out that Keith was a founder member of the BLK art group (whilst still on the course) and he used his energies and passion for tackling social and political issues through his art. He was and is a key figure in the development of the black art movement in the UK.

His entry in Wikipedia is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Piper_(artist) and his website is here: https://www.keithpiper.info/.

The art students in my first year accomodation at Trent were good company. They tended to be a year older as I had come straight from school and they had come from an intermediary local foundation art course. They were confident and more worldy wise than I was and introduced me to new ideas and music.

Disco at the Arbouretum pub in Nottingham 1982/3

The Arboretum in 1980 was a pub for older people, there was live music from singers in the style of Frank Sinatra and others of that period.

Within a short time it was refitted for the younger crowd. Dress code to get in: no trainers, smart attire.

The atmosphere was intense. Groups of girls, groups of boys. Overcoming the friction with music and alcohol.

Tiko

Tiko was Mrs Saper dog in Tyrwhitt Road. Mrs Saper was my wonderful landlady originally from Poland.

Tiko was a very easy going dog and a real member of the family. Before I moved into the house I used to visit her son Adam and stay in a spare room.

One time I remember going to see a film “The Entity” at the largest screen in London and sat at the front, Adams friend got us free tickets as she worked in the industry. It was an especially scary film so I appreciated Tiko sleeping on my bed that night!

Taken on a 1932 Voigtländer Brillant V6 camera with a wide aperture (perhaps wide open at f4.5. I love the image drawing, tones and colours from this lens. A later version of this camera was copied by the Russians and called “Lubitel” My first Lubitel cost £11.75 in 1975 and had a sharper lens.

Sawley, Derbyshire


Cows gather for milking on a farm next to All Saints Church, Yashica 124G 1981/82. Field trip for Trent Polytechnic photo students.

The Argument

 

Circa 1977. Two adjacent frames from a roll of 120 film.

I was sitting between mum and dad. I dont think they noticed me taking the pictures. Later in life its easier to see how arguments between people can focus the energies to the exclusion of all.

I was 16 at the time and still can recall taking the photographs, using the camera as a way of distancing myself perhaps but years later the images help give me a better understanding of what was happening then.

Not common to see pictures from a real argument, I photographed the hurt feelings of the listener as the other person shouted. Life it seems is not straightforward.

 

Living history

 

I photographed the prospectus for Newark Colledge in I think 1981 / 1982 as part of my photo course. I visited each department in turn but I remember best the visit to  the violin making department.

The students were from all over the world and I remember the calm but focused atmosphere. It turns out that the people I photographed then have gone on to be significant figures in their field.

Hans Johannsson had left a year or two earlier but I was asked by Brian FitzGibbon the director of a short documentary if I would supply some images taken in the early 80s, I was happy to do so. Its well woth a watch as the director has made a sensitive and well rounded overview of Hans’s journey.

I love the fact that Hans whilst respecting the past thinks above and beyond what has been to what could be and is still prepared to experiment.

Watch the Video here; https://youtu.be/EhF26dlwX8M

Hand and Lightning T70L 243989-1

One of my stock images from the mid 1980’s.

I photographed my hand using my Pentax K1000 and its standard 50mm f2 lens. I held my fingers around a bare 15w light bulb that had a black piece of cardboard on top of the bulb so it would not flare into the lens. The lightning is a strike over Lewisham photographed at another time from the kitchen window shot on b+w negative film.

I made a high contrast lith positive of the lightning and put a blue gel over it. I then used the colour enlarger at the Tony Stone darkrooms to first expose the hand onto a 10″x8″ sheet of transparency film then exposed the lightning.

At the time I thought of it as illustrating “Creative Spark” the sudden creative process that creates ideas out of nowhere. I cannot say I planned to “think” this image into existence but this image was in my mind before I created the components.

Conceptual stock photography like this was not too common at the time and I felt it in my bones that it would sell well. It went on to be my best selling image generating enough income for me to move from rented accommodation.

It took on a life of its own. my concept of creative spark was not shared, it was used to represent power. It was even used  by the SNP in Scotland to promote the independence vote in 2014, I guess the idea was to have the power in Scottish hands rather than London.

I cannot control how my images were used but it struck me at one point that I was responsible for putting image like this out into society, lots of money but I wonder about how it may have been misused.

I did get permission from Tony to use the darkroom after hours and I paid for the film and processing of the film used.
Tony and his agents will have earned more money from the image than me but it was a fair split between us. I withdrew the image from Getty in 2017 after the split was weighed heavily in their favour.

Conceptual images like this can be created by anyone now for free using AI programs, good job I dont rely on picture sales any more!

Adam

A bag of raddishes, ideal for snacking on. Nottingham 1980-81. Adam was a fellow photo student at Trent Polytechnic.

A student of art 1980

Bernard in the kitchen at the first year student accomodation in Bayham street. I took the religious iconography as ironic but now I wonder.

Towards Cromer Pier

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.

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.

 

The learning process

Euan Duff the course leader at the Photo Department at Trent Polytechnic knew I enjoyed documentary photography so give me the opportunity in my second year to work with a graphics student who had a project on schooling in Nottingham.

One of the schools I photographed was a small private primary. Entering the classroom was like going back in time to my state school in St.Helens, perhaps the floors were less dusty here but it flooded me with memories of listening to stories and the strict and not so strict teachers.

On the desk is a packet of sweets or munchies, not too sure if they are confiscated from a child or used to reward good behavior. Young minds informed.

Mum deep in thought

Inside a caravan in Wales, late 1970s family holiday. Secrets and the past, alone in her thoughts.

A St.Helens boy in the Antarctic

The penguins were lovely, the landscape changed constantly as the ice moved.

Seeing the light and colours of this place first hand was a real insight.  Sometimes a reddish colour could be seen in distant snow, only a small cast but one I have previously thought was a camera artefact.

Sony A7c  with 85mm lens, digital not film. Many thanks to Sue Flood for the opportunity.

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