Hard copies ..

I'll say this about Press photography! You certainly got to meet some famous people! I was rootling around my many boxes of archive negs and trannies yesterday when I came across a box marked 'Celebs'. Like, wow, dudes! Kaboom! Check out who I found in there! Joan Collins, Cliff Richard, Cilla Black, Norman Wisdom and flippin' Peter Ustinov, of all people! (I'll always remember Joan telling me off for 'getting too close') There are also shots of Eartha Kitt, David Bellamy, Rod Stewart, George Best, David Hockney and, er ... Jimmy Saville and Rolf Harris! Oops! God knows who else I met over my years on newspapers, but a lot of those shots will have gone down the pan when the Manchester Evening News dumped all its negatives when it moved offices. (No comment!!) But that's film for you, isn't it? Those tiny slips of gelatine are all you've got! I was once the only photographer allowed to cover an event with the Queen in London's Hyde Park but, unfortunately, the client got the film. Same with Take That, so I have no copies of any of that work, and it's very unlikely I'll ever get any, now. Shame they hadn't invented the digital era, when I could have backed up my own set of images on a secondary memory card!..

Having said that, it's good to see that 'hard copies' are still proving popular in some areas. A young lady who lives some distance away came up for a family reunion during the summer, and organised a big family portrait during her visit. She's just emailed to say she'll be back in the area soon, and could I meet her at StudioFiveFour Photography on December 23rd, where she'd like to order one of my canvas prints. "But .." she adds "Don't worry! I won't need it in time for Christmas!"..

On yer bike..

Getty have picked another set of my images to add to their archive, and I'm delighted that they went for this one .. a chap holding a brolly as he cycled past the flats in Salford! Like a lot of the things in my shots, it's just not something you see anymore, is it? You don't see shops advertising 'Colour' televisions, or kids with holes in their trousers, or women in rollers getting on a bus! Trouble is, these days you'd be scared to shoot them if you saw 'em. There's such a scary, suspicious mood on the streets now, and it's sad! Ah, the modern world. It can get lost! I'm staying in the 70s .. I like it here!

War! What is it good for?...

Go and see 'McCullin', the film about renowned war photographer Don McCullin. Bravery, modesty, artistry, humanity and sheer, utter professionalism are what you'll see when you go. That and some of the most powerful proof you'll ever need of how awful mankind is to its brothers and sisters. We went yesterday. One of the 'wars' in Don's life was the conflict in Northern Ireland - he went there for The Observer in 1971 - and guess what was on the front page of yesterday's Observer. An image from the 'war' in Belfast! Police being shot at on the streets of The UK this weekend - forty two years after Don's first images. The sad thing is that he admits that his war photography doesn't change a thing. On a lighter note, he came to Waterstone's in Manchester in 1992 to launch his amazing autobiography, and I dutifully queued to have my copy signed by 'the master'. After a brief chat when it was 'my turn', he looked at me and said "Do you know, you're the first person I've spoken to tonight that's got a Northern accent!"

A kid 'shooting' over a pew in church. That's as close as I ever want to get to war, and it's yet another of the images from my archive. If it's of any interest, I've started a Facebook group to try to promote the Twelve for '13 project.
I'd love it if you joined...

Thunderbirds are gone...

And just like that, all my Space Heroes are gone! In 2012 we've already lost Neil Armstrong and Patrick Moore and now - just yesterday - Gerry Anderson. If you're one of my overseas readers I think this blog might not mean much and I apologise but, if you grew up in England in the 60s, there was no doubt that you got your first introduction to space and adventure through his work. I never got to meet the first man on the moon - although I did photograph one of his suits once - and I never got to meet the 'mad professor' Moore who made it such fun to learn about space - although I have got his autograph in the front of a book about the universe - but I did photograph Gerry Anderson - and the real 12 inch Captain Scarlet - when they visited a Manchester Sci-fi convention back in the early 90s. It's because of Gerry Anderson that we all grew up wanting to be astronauts - although, for me, poor eyesight and being sh*t scared of sitting in a capsule on top of a 356 foot bomb put paid to that - and it's because of Gerry Anderson that I got two of my earliest nicknames - viz: Joe 90 and Brains!
Erm, I think you can see why....
FAB Gerry Anderson, FAB.....