Come fly with me..

So I'm working on this old image yesterday - of a Jumbo at 'Ringway' Airport - when 'Jet' by Wings comes on the radio! I just love coincidences like that! The other day Lesley and I watched the Kirsten Dunst version of 'Marie Antoinette' and, listed in the film credits, was the name of a guy who's job was 'Head Cutter'! The guy who wrote my Crossword Dictionary is called Ted Smart! It goes on and on! Anyway, the reason I was working on this shot is because it's just been selected to go up on the walls of a new 'Executive' Lounge at Manchester Airport. I've had two images chosen - the other shot is of an old Dan-Air Comet - and it looks like there'll be more to go up in the near future. It's all been a bit rushed - as these things always are - but I'll be able to tell you a little more about it once the lounge opens to the public next week. There was one other good piece of news yesterday, too! I'm going to have a three-month show of some of my music photography over the summer/autumn at a cafe in Salford. It'll tie in nicely with the Salford Music Festival, so I'll probably be able to buy my own private jet from the sales of Joy Division prints before Christmas! Must fly..

Stop Press: News just in .. reports say it's not a Jumbo, it's a DC8 !

The only way is up..

If you must know, I'm going up the wall at the moment. I have so many projects that are just on the verge of coming together .. hopefully .. and it's driving me mad! In the ideal world we'd be a month down the line and I'd be writing things like "Oh, yes!" .. and "Guess what!".. but, at the moment, all I can do is keep schtum and keep my fingers crossed. Now I realise that makes for the most boring blog in the world and I apologise, but hey, at least it gives me an excuse to show you yet another shot from my Twelve for '13 archive! And yes, that is one of the projects that I'm waiting for an answer on! Bad grammar, point made! Now pass me my crampons...

Hand out ..

Here we are, folks! This is one of the earliest of my photographs - as early as any I can find in my archive, anyway. It was taken in Foxhill Road, in about 1974, on a Kodak Instamatic 126. I think you can see a certain nascent creativity there, ho ho! Certainly this was my first encounter with parallax error, as you can see that what was seen through the lens is slightly different to what I saw through the viewfinder! It's ok, though, I got the hang of that over the next 34 years!

Well, the exhibition is going swimmingly, even getting over 100 visitors on the cold, rainy, snowy Saturday we've just had. It's such fun to be there, listening to the tales and memories the images evoke. What I need now, though, is for the archive to be seen as a 'photographic' project rather than a collection of 'old photographs'. I certainly think that will become more evident once the gallery show finishes and Twelve for '13 gets going over the next year. I've picked the worst time to be trying to get a book published from it, though. There isn't a budget to be had from anyone, and the books are far too expensive (unfortunately) to self-publish .. unless anyone's got a spare thousand quid they can lend me?

She's behind you...

252!!! That's how many people we had through the door of the gallery on Saturday! Two hundred and fifty bloody two! In six hours! I'm absolutely amazed! That means that almost 500 visitors have seen my photographs already, and we've only opened to the public three times! How good, as they say, is that? I spent the whole day chatting and listening to fantastic stories about 'the old days'. People really are engaging in the project and it's so exciting!

A couple of visitors were trying to identify where today's photograph was taken. It's actually in front of the Co-op funeral parlour on Liverpool Road. Glamorous, eh? Anyway, speaking of glamorous, I was telling them that the shot is actually labelled in my negative file as 'Fit Birds'! Hey, I was only 17! "Be careful.." I heard a voice say "You never know who might hear that!" I turned around and there was .. the 'fit bird' on the right! "Good job you didn't call it anything else!" she laughed!
Phew! Good job...

You da best...

It seems the search for happiness is doomed to failure, apparently, because we're always projecting things forward (An expert said!) We will get that promotion, we will win the lottery, etc., etc., etc... Turns out that when you achieve what you aimed at, you soon revert to your normal state of unhappiness.

Well, I guess that's why I'm always so deliriously joyful. I'm always looking backwards!...

Back to the 'good old days' when everything was rosy and Adele hadn't even been born! Back to HP5, and vinyl and news that came on sheets of paper! Back to 3 TV channels - ok, four - and access to bands and famous people without having to sign your life away! Back to a time you could trip over a wire and not make money by blaming someone else! Back to the days when a good photographer could make a decent living without being undercut by a numpty with a 'good' camera. Yes, folks, I like it in here. Those days were the Best...