Well, I've had my fifteen minutes of fame and I hope you managed to catch them. I was interviewed about my new photography book by Mike Sweeney on BBC Radio Manchester on Monday, and was immediately overwhelmed with a rush of orders. Two of them! The Porsche is still on hold ..
(And if you really want to hear it, it's two hours 32 minutes in here .. )
There's a village in France called GuÎtres, a quiet little place with an ancient abbey, an old town hall .. and a Mayor in trendy trainers who's decided to stage a photography exhibition!
He and his cultural association have invited me to be the first person to display my pictures in their 'mairie', and are going to kick off my two month show there with a 'vernissage' - or opening night - at the Abbey, with a post-punk DJ playing music alongside a selection of my work.
What started as a small show of my Joy Division pictures has grown to include an extra 20 or so images from my archive of 1970s Manchester photographs, and I'm delighted to have the opportunity to share my Manchester upbringing with the lovely people of rural France. (Copies of my new photography books will also be available to purchase! End of commercial break ;-) .. )
The show opens to the public on April 22nd and will run until the end of June. Guitres is just an hour from Bordeaux, in the wine-growing area close to the fantastic Chateau de Geai (Best red I've ever tasted!).
It would be great to see you there .. especially if you're wearing Converse One-Stars!
The little girl in this photograph is forty-one years old next month. She has two children. Paula and Ian here are proud grand-parents and I'm a photographer wondering where the hell so much time has gone! Thank God I had a camera with me as it passed. It captured so much of life in the days before pronouns and mobiles and Taylor Swift. (I was going to say 'normal' life but I suppose internet-porn and 'on-demand' and shit music are normal life for kids these days!)
For those of you who still 'do' books, I'm putting together a set of five to showcase these archive photographs, and I'm pleased to say they're starting to attract interest. I've had a couple of great reviews on Amazon and tomorrow I'm being interviewed by Mike Sweeney on BBC Radio Manchester. Who knows, in another forty years, my work might be part of someone's dusty 'antique' book collection. Here's hoping!
It's Mother's Day today, and also the feast day of St. Joseph, after whom my Dad was named. My Mum got flowers, chocolates and a long telephone call. My Dad got moments of fond reminiscence and a wish that he was still here.
To my parents .. I love you both x
Astonishing to think that forty-four years have gone by since I took these photographs. Great to know that people are more interested in them than ever ..
I was just eighteen when Joy Division played at Bowdon Vale Youth Club on March 14th 1979, and I made a set of photographs that has come to play a big part in their legacy. Four of the images have just been used in a MOJO magazine Joy Division special; a fashion company in Tokyo is just about to launch a range of t-shirts featuring my pictures, and the complete set of prints will go on display in an Abbey near Bordeaux towards the end of next month.
Lead singer Ian Curtis killed himself just over a year after I took these shots. I'm proud to play my part in keeping alive his memory ..
