My Books ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was more than a little surprised to realise I've now self-published twenty-one books. Thirteen are photo-books, four form a children's self-illustrated space-adventure series, one is a stand-alone story for kids and three are adult fiction. Well, I didn't know I had it in me! 

I've loved the creative process that's brought each of these publications to life. I've probably been able to produce each of the photo-books in a matter of months, but the written work has taken years. The promotion of them all is a different matter though. I have spent so much time searching for literary agents and interested photographic parties to take up my work, but all to no avail. It's bloody hard work to get noticed out there. Still, that's not going to stop the fun I'm having while I create them. I have three others in the pipeline!!

Ps: The titles are :-

Photo-Books

Book One. Photography? There's no money in that, son ..

Book Two. Snaps? I'm an artist!

Book Three. So what do you do in the week?

Book Four. My Uncle's got a good camera.

Book Five. Shot anyone famous?

Book Six. Who d'ya think you are, David Bailey ..?

Book Seven. Cheese!

 Portrait Photography

69 Portraits

77 More ..

Joy Division

Bowdon Vale Youth Club (French & English versions)

Travel/Documentary Photography

Continental '82 (A road-trip around America .. by air!)

Riding the Dirty Dog (Across America on a Greyhound Bus .. in a week!)

Children's Space Adventure Series

Swapsies

Meet the Neighbours

Friend to the Stars

Don't go near the Black Hole, Sunshine

Children's Fiction

The Boy who missed Next Year

Adult Fiction

Page 99, by Joe Bancroft

SNAPS

Tofalofalos

 

Click the image to enlarge it, and click here to find out how to part with your hard-earned dosh!

 

I'll be in touch ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The astronauts on Artemis went around the back of the Moon last night and were out of touch with the Earth for a whole forty minutes. Can you imagine being 'out of touch' with anybody for that long anymore? It just wouldn't happen, would it? Not in a time when almost everybody on the planet has a mobile 'phone. By chance, I photographed this yellow marker in a field the other day (I'm not sure what it's actually marking, but never mind ..) and it reminded me of a time before mobiles, a time when different companies were battling to get a slice of that new, emergent market. In the 90s I used to do a bit of PR photography, you see, for a company called Rabbit, whose idea was a new portable telephone system that required you to be within range of one of their transmitters. (Didn't work out, for obvious reasons!) I'd get various famous* people to pose with a hand-set .. and a rabbit .. and the shots would be sent out to local press. Nowadays, of course, we're completely absorbed by 'phones. Mesmerized, hypnotised, totally contr .. oh sorry, my 'phone's ringing. Gotta go!

* It's Mike Harding, if you were struggling!

 

New heights

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was 'mad' on Space when I was a kid. Had all the Airfix models, loved James Burke and always asked for Space annuals for Christmas. I can even remember making a papier-mâché moon surface on which to plonk my Lunar Module when I was about ten. What exciting times they were, and yet how quickly it all fizzled out again after Apollo 17. So how wonderful it was to watch the Artemis 2 rocket blast off last night, even if it was equally astonishing to think that I haven't watched a 'Moon shot' launch like that for an unbelievable fifty-four years ..

We bought a Laburnum the other day, a tree which, according to the label, will reach its full height in fifteen years. In fifteen years I'll be eighty years old. I just hope the time doesn't fly as quickly as it has since 1972 ..

 

Have you heard?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fame came a' calling last week when I went back to Manchester to be interviewed by Tony Flynn of Salford Media. We had a quick run-through of my career and then Tony, God bless 'im, gave me an opportunity to promote my photo-books. As of yesterday, the broadcast had had 15, 000 views, so I await the mad rush of orders! If you'd like to see my part of the programme it's here ..  

The Somme

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week ago today I went to The Somme and, to my surprise, saw all I wanted to see within a day. I hadn't realised everything was so close together. Thiepval, The Ulster Tower, Beaumont-Hamel, Pozières. War graves, memorials, The Somme museum. All within a few short miles of each other. And yet think how much death there was in that tiny area of France. My mind can't comprehend it, and I still don't know how I feel about it all. To walk in real trenches and try to imagine what went on right there. Right where I was standing. My heart can't take it all in ..

There was one particular name engraved on a memorial. O'Neill, MJ. My name, my initials. Rest in peace, you poor sod. It made me feel so bloody lucky that I was born when I was. No conscription for me. No world at war, no hardship. No early death. And yet ..

My picture shows the Thiepval Memorial to The Missing of The Somme. Seventy-three thousand men that just disappeared into the mud and blood of the battlefield. How can we take all that in in our soft, modern times? Perhaps if I asked the soldiers of Ukraine, because here we are, one hundred and ten years on, still physically battering each other to death with shells and bullets and hate ..

I know how I feel now. 

 

 

Continental '82

 

 

 

 

 

 I do like a project for the winter. In the past I've concentrated on fiction-writing and my photo-books, but this year I'm using the time to sort out a box of negatives I've had since 1982. That was the year I spent five weeks criss-crossing America on a Continental Airlines Visit USA air-pass, which allowed me unlimited flight all over the continent. I think it cost £200, and I went over with just £200 in my pocket, travelling from New York and New Hampshire to Seattle, Houston to San Francisco and Boston to Denver, dossing in airports or with pen-friends or friends of friends, as well as a second-uncle of my Dad's and even a very kind Californian lady whose photograph I took when she visited Warrington to campaign against proposed nuclear weapon storage at the former RAF Burtonwood (I think!)

I travelled light, carrying only my trusty Olympus XA camera, and I shot Ilford HP5 and Kodak Tri-X to produce well over 500 black and white negatives, all of which have just been sitting in this box for the last 43 years. Now I've started scanning them to digital, transporting myself back to when I was just 22 with untold adventure ahead of me. (Although, I must admit, I've already seen some things I can't even remember anymore. There's a shot of me with a vast grassy canyon behind. Turns out it's Cannon Mountain in upstate New Hampshire. Not a single memory of it! Would never even have known I'd been there without that photographic evidence!!) I see the work as my own personal Stephen Shore road-trip, or a Robert Frank tribute, and I'll produce a book of course, to go (unsold) with all the others I've produced. But, hey ho, it's worth it for the creative satisfaction I'm getting. Continental '82 is what it'll be called. Available in no good book shops ..

The shots above show a 'cowboy' on a vast, empty DC-10, and a skinny oik with pretensions to photographic grandeur on the deck of a Staten Island ferry. Ah, the joys of youth ..

 

Bless you ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've just had a quick two-day flit to Manchester, bringing back memories of the days I used to go plane-spotting at the airport there in the 1970s. Back then, the roof terraces were open to spectators and you'd literally be above the jets and passengers as they got on or off their flights. Such freedom has long gone, of course, which is a shame but I can obviously see why. Also long gone are jets like these, the Boeing 727 and the Vickers VC-10, not to mention the entire Pan-Am airline, which went out of business many years ago. Anyway, a good time was had by all and I came back with duty-free gin, Cadbury's chocolate, a couple of new books and .. a stinking cold! 

Bless you, Manchester!