Sh*t ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A photograph by William Eggleston has just sold at auction in New York for $1.44m. I mean, I like old Billy's work a lot, but .. a million and a half for ONE photograph?? And this just days after a banana that had been stuck to a wall sold for over six million dollars. (And you don't even get the original banana for that price!) What a load of sh*t the art world is .. 

Although, I do have some lovely prints and photo-books available if anyone wants to put a bid in. Prices start at ten quid and .. erm, end there, too!

 

Copy that ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a kid, I dreamt of becoming a press photographer. All that exotic foreign travel, all that shoulder-rubbing with the rich and famous. In reality, most of my time was spent taking photographs like this .. the mundane, run-of-the-mill, bread and butter shots that filled a local weekly newspaper. (Faces sell 'papers, as they used to say. I talk about it in my fictional novel Page 99, by Joe Bancroft) ..

I recently unearthed an archive of this 'ordinary' press photography and plan to produce a collection of it to add to my stable of self-published books. (Actually, Faces sell 'papers isn't a bad title, come to think of it!) Anyway, my dream came true (obviously) and it's incredible to think but, back in November 1978, I'd just completed my first ever month as a professional photographer. A mere forty-six years ago, for goodness sake. At least photo-copiers have got smaller ..

Bah, humbug ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

The festive season steams in earlier and earlier and I think it's three weeks already since I heard Wham's 'Last Christmas' on the radio. When we moved to France we were rather pleased to see that the shops and supermarkets didn't go as crazy on the commercialism as the UK, but I'm afraid that's all changed now. Our local Intermarché, for example, has had a decorated toy 'grotto' open for business since the start of November. Still, the 'season of goodwill' was always good for me as a freelance photographer, what with all the parties and promotions like the shot I'm showing you today. Back in the day, I used to do a lot of work for Royal Mail, and a regular PR shoot was the arrival of that year's Christmas stamps. (I'm guessing this picture was taken in the early 90s, with pantomime characters out on Manchester's Market Street to plug the launch.) Now, things are so bad that I'm not sure anyone can actually afford to buy a stamp. In fact, I've heard the main Post Office in my home town of Eccles is likely to be shut down to save money. Talk about 'Bah, humbug' ..

Me, me, Moorea ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a relative - a second cousin, I think (never met her!) - who is currently travelling in India and Nepal. I know this because she puts about sixty photographs a day on Instagram. (Me in a bar, me at the Taj Mahal, me in a tuk-tuk .. etc., etc., etc .. ) Now, I've no qualms with this and think it's lovely that she can relay the story of her trip to friends and family back home. It just reminds me of the time I did a round-the-world trip in 1991. Back then there were no mobile 'phones, no internet, no nothing! I shot all my photographs on Kodachrome 64 transparency film and posted the rolls home so that my Dad could forward them on for processing at Kodak's Hemel Hempstead labs. I didn't see a single one of my shots for six months. Now I know that's hardly Amundsen and the Antarctic, but it does show you how far things have come in such a short period of time, doesn't it? 

Ps: Since you ask, this is me on the island of Moorea, scene of one of my favourite films of all time. The bay on the left was deemed to be more photogenic and therefore used instead of Tahiti in The Bounty, with Anthony Hopkins. It looked so beautiful on screen that I just had to go and see it in 'real life'. I wasn't disappointed ..