Happy Birthday, Elliott ..

Happy 91st birthday to one of my heroes .. the great photographer Elliott Erwitt, definitely one of my earliest photographic influences, particularly for his use of humour in his work. I hadn't realised as a kid that photography could be amusing!! The shot I'm showing you today highlights that beautifully. Photographing these army cadets circa 1975 I asked one of the boys to stick out his tongue as he marched past - a straight copy of Elliott's shot of marching soldiers that features in one of his books ..

Now, please don't tell anybody, but I stole that book from our school library when I was about 15. (The guilt haunts me still!) Years later I was lucky enough to meet Elliott and I got him to sign it. "Man," he said, "I've not seen one of these for a long time" .. 

Dad ..

I love this picture of my Dad. There he is, third from left in oily overalls, fag in hand, his hair - his pride and joy - carefully combed, and a cool smile on his face. More or less his 'go to' look until redundancy robbed him of direction in his early 50s and shot down his life ..

He'd be about 28 in this shot, and he'd have been 86 today if he was still around.
July the 9th. My Dad's birthday.
Love you, Dad. Miss you ..