As it happens ..

 

 

 

 

 

I know we all think we have 'the best job in the world', but I think you're pretty damned close to it with press photography. The variety and opportunity, the complete lack of routine, the travel, the celebrities. I knew I had it made when, on my first day as a professional snapper, I had to photograph the captain of Manchester United. The captain! Oh yes, it doesn't get better than that ..

And the point being? Well, there is no point, actually. I just needed a bit of pre-amble to allow me to show you today's photographs. A lot of you may have seen the new TV programme 'The Reckoning', featuring comedian Steve Coogan as Jimmy Savile. In my role as a press photographer I got to photograph them both (regardless of what happened later!)

Told you it was a good job. Just saying ..

In the market ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Hi there," read an email this week. "I've bought one of your photo-books, as I want to do one of my own. I wondered if you could give me any advice about marketing?" I did one of those comic 'double-takes', my neck whipping round swiftly to see who else could be in the room. Me? I thought. He's asking me for marketing advice? I'm sorry, I replied, I think you're asking the wrong person ..

Truth is, for all my puffing and panting, my blogging and tweeting (Xing?), my Instagraming and Facebooking, my radio interview, my article in Amateur Photographer magazine and even  .. yes, physically taking the books around to photography galleries in London and Liverpool .. I've managed to sell a grand total of one book in October. And now I've just realised .. it was to him, wasn't it .. ?

Ah well, Christmas is coming. Hint, hint ..

Are you there, Iggy?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's only one thing to do when the weather's as bad as it is. You dive into your big box of old negatives and see if you've missed that one great shot that's going to make you famous .. 

Well, I haven't found that (yet) but I've found this, among others, and haven't the foggiest idea when I took it. I don't know who the guys are, why they were putting on make-up or the location of that salubrious toilet. And I probably never will, unless the Iggy Pop lookalike suddenly recognises himself from this blog and lets me know. The amazing thing about human memory, though, is that, if 'Iggy' were to make himself known again, I might well then recall the circumstances of this photograph. The 'who' and the 'why' and the 'where' might still be stuck in that mass of wobbly jelly in my bonce, and I might be able to pull out the detail and recall the occasion. In the meantime, thank God for photography, eh? Are you out there, Iggy? Are ya?..

 

Salt and vinegar?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favourite images is this daft old sign, which I photographed in the window of a chip shop in Eccles back in the 1970s. (I even have a copy of it on my wall). Back in my home town again last week, I popped out for fish, chips and mushy peas (obligatory!) and, although quite reasonable by today's standards, the cost was £6.90. I allowed myself a wry smile as I thought back to 1977, when the cost of the same tasty nosh (wrapped in newspaper, of course) would have set me back sixty pence!..

An awful lot of other things have changed since I was growing up back then - lots of the buildings are gone or converted to other uses (A bank into a sun-bed salon, for example!); much of the town is behind steel rollers or wooden hoarding, the businesses inside long gone, and charity and vape shops abound. It was all very sad, albeit with a glimmer of hope as the precinct is set to be demolished and re-built, introducing a 'better' class of shop and a new vitality to a dead old town. I can only hope ..

Now then, salt and vinegar? Yes, please. Plenty ..