Four ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so we start our fourth year in France. Zut alor!..

The joy of gîtes ..

 

 

 

 

 

Well, goodbye guests. That's the end of the summer season for La Galerie, our little gîte in downtown SW France, and what a short season it was. Thanks to Covid we were shut from March until the beginning of July but, we're delighted to say that, as soon as restrictions were lifted, the bookings came flooding in. We had Dutch guests, French guests, Scottish guests and .. some English!!

Now, I'm saying it like that for a reason, and that being, as much as we like and need them, the English are so bloody messy! They don't seem to be able to tidy up after themselves when they leave. The Dutch? Brilliant. Same for the French, the Spanish, the Scots, the Poles and every other nationality of guest we've welcomed here. But the English? Well, they seem to think we're some kind of skivvies, put on earth for the sole purpose of cleaning up the mess they leave behind them. There seems to be a general attitude of 'leave it, we're on holiday'. Look at this photograph of the shelf in our bathroom. Disgusting, isn't it? Still, I suppose I shouldn't complain. The guests left us a great review. The gîte, they said, was .. "spotless" !

Let's hear it for the oldies ..

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week on from turning 60 and I've already seen one advantage of my advanced years. I've been able to get an eye-test appointment a full month ahead of that whipper-snapper Lesley! Ha ..

Grateful ..

I'm going to be sixty years old tomorrow. Good God, I'm not old enough to be sixty years old and, as unoriginal as it sounds, I have to ask 'where did all that time go?'

Well, I suppose it went whilst having a great life and, at 59.9999999 I have to say I've enjoyed practically every minute of it (so far). So, I'm feeling grateful today. Grateful for everything I have, grateful for my health, my family, everyone I know, everything I've done, everything I've experienced, everything I'm still going to experience and, probably, grateful for headache tablets come Wednesday morning ..

Today's shot is probably one of my earliest photographs. This is the street I grew up on, circa 1974. The little blighter on the left is my brother James, and he's 53 years old now! Little did I know when I took this that a long and wondrous career as a photographer beckoned and, for that, I am very grateful indeed ..

Normalness ..

Dare I say there's a hint of 'normalness' re-appearing in our lives? I've had my first photo-shoot in the studio since February - the delightful young ladies above - and, last week, I had to photograph the newly-elected Mayor and council for our commune. I've also had enquiries for a Wedding and a shoot at a property ..

Good news on the gîte front too, as La Galerie welcomes new guests today, our first since March ..

Covid 19 hasn't gone away but, thank God, the stark reality of life in lockdown is starting to fade ..

Is 'normalness' a word? It is now ..

My Olympus Trip ..

I'm a bit late coming to this news, but I read the other day that Olympus have stopped making cameras. I mean, that's like saying Hovis have given up on bread. What sad news. Sad but inevitable, I guess, as the rise and rise of the 'phone camera continues ..

When I first started working on a newspaper, I was presented with an Olympus OM-1 camera, with its 'arse-about-face' shutter speed ring where the aperture ring would normally be. (Don't worry about the technical stuff. Let's just say it was very odd to get used to). However, when I was about 20 the company launched the Olympus XA camera - a little compact beauty that I immediately fell in love with. From the day I bought one I was never without it. We went everywhere together and I must have gone through about five or six of them over the following years. (Including the one I dropped down a volcano in Sumatra.) I shot all of my book 'Don't Miss This' on them. It was just so quiet and inconspicuous. And now? Erm, now I use the camera on my 'phone ..

Sorry, Olympus, but it's been one hell of a trip ..

Father's Day ..

It's summer 1961, and a good-looking 28 year old proudly holds his one year old son for the camera, their smiles captured forever.

The 28 year old was my Dad. I'm the little nipper in his arms. I wish I could put my arms around him now .. 

Have a nice day!

My blog today consists of this one single picture. I think the headline in the newspaper sums up my thoughts perfectly. Showing you this old picture of mine means that I now don't need to write about Covid-19, or racism, or unemployment, or recession, or Chinese aggression, or Dickhead (Sorry, every time I try to write T.r.u.m.p my computer spellchecks it back to Dickhead), or kids with knives, or corporate greed, or scum raping women at illegal Manchester raves, or people dumping statues into the sea (That'll definitely erase things from history .. not!!), or the UK Government, or people suing their date because they got a cold-sore, or North Korea, or Assad, or, or, or ..

Have a nice day! 

Watch it, Grandad ..

Writing about Wedding photography yesterday reminded me how I would always meticulously clean my cameras before photographing someone's Big Day. It was a little ritual I had. The sensors, the viewfinders, the lenses .. they all got the (pre-Covid) deep clean ..

So, after writing my blog, I took out all my gear and decided to give it the once-over. And then came my Grandad moment. I looked at my first camera body and realised I couldn't remember how to open the back. And then it dawned on me. It was a digital camera. One does not open the back of a digital camera. Gone are the days of blowing dust from your open shutter and checking there were no broken fragments of film stuck to the sprockets. My, how I laughed ..

I always fretted if I had a long gap between Weddings. It was important to keep 'up to speed' with all my camera gear. Three or four weeks without a booking meant I got rusty, in my opinion. I wonder how rusty we all are now, seeing as we haven't done 'normal' things for so long ...

To illustrate today's blog, a shot from the early 80s, when people would latch themselves onto each other and 'row' along the disco floor to the song 'Oops, upside your head'.

Hmm! Did I say "normal" .. ? 

Mind the gap ..

It's a frustrating week of 'Would have, Should have' this week. For a start, we should have had family over here for a holiday, but Covid's put the mockers on that. And, if things had been normal, I would have been going to an air show a couple of hours from here next Sunday. Most annoying of all, I would have been photographing a wedding this week, but all plans got put on hold and now it's not going to happen. Ironic in the week that lockdown got a little easier on us, with bars and restaurants finally opening again and larger groups able to get together for the first time in ages ..

Still, we're going in the right direction but I worry that people will take things too far and we'll all be back to square one. So, please, as they say on the Underground .. Mind The Gap!

My Dad ..

It's the morning of Saturday May 23rd .. 2009. The morning my Dad died. Eleven years on and I still miss him so much. I have so many good memories, like the night he won this giant bottle of Bell's whisky in the pub raffle. Once it was finally drained he used it to collect loose change and, when it was eventually full, he donated the money to charity. He was nice like that, my Dad ..

On yer bike, China ..

First bike ride after the end of lock-down yesterday .. and wonderful it was, too. Just waiting for the achy legs to kick in now. By sheer coincidence, I dug out this shot the other day - a kodachrome slide from a trip I made a long time ago. I know China is a dirty word at the moment, but this is a picture from Canton and I look at it now with a sense of dismay, that a country can have as many cyclists as it has and still pump out all the pollution it does. How depressing to hear that pollution levels are on the rise again as things there get 'back to normal'.

I don't want normal anymore, thank you very much ..   

Look, don't touch!

What was it like before the pandemic, Grandad? I've heard there was a time when people could go into pubs and clubs and sit next to each other .. without masks .. and they could shake hands and kiss and hug and not be afraid of catching anything! Is it true, Grandad? Is it true?..

 (A shot from my archive: The Talk of The North club, Eccles, circa 1977. That's my grandma, trying to hide from my camera!)

Leaving Lock-Down ..

Freedom! Erm, apart from the weather ..

Today is the first day we in France are being allowed to move around more freely and, wouldn't you know it, it's blowing a gale and pouring down.

It's also the day my Lock-Down Landscapes project must come to an end even though, ironically, the weather of late has been too good to come inside and actually design any. So, you can thank the horrible conditions for the fact that I've actually been indoors this morning and it gives me great pleasure to present to you my final three montages. All were shot in, or from, our garden, apart from half a dozen that I photographed on our permitted one-kilometre walks ..

God, imagine only being able to walk a kilometre from your home. Yes, they've sure been weird times. Let's pray to God that people are sensible and we never get a restriction like that ever again ..

Ten out of ten ..

It's the tenth of May, 2010 ..

I'm pulling into a pub car-park, heart-thumping, about to meet - in person - a girl I've met on-line.

Her name is Lesley, and she's lovely.

______


It's the tenth of May, 2020 ..

I'm in France, with the girl I love.

Her name is Lesley, and she's lovely.

_______


Our tenth anniversary. Wow!

Oh, the picture? Well, she'd kill me if I put up a picture of herself. These are Lesley's grand-daughters. What? I'm going out with a grandma?..

;-)

x

Ten years into the future ..

I had the most lovely surprise yesterday ..

"Just wanted to say hi .." said a message I received. "Ten years ago today you photographed our wedding at Manchester Town Hall. You probably won't remember it as you've done hundreds but you did make our day and we've got lots of captured memories thanks to you."

Well, of course I remember it, and what a lovely message .. and how absolutely wonderful of the couple to think of me on their wedding anniversary. It really made my day ..

'Future Everything' said the poster that I posed them by all those years ago and now that we're in 'the future' it just reinforces the importance of a good set of Wedding photographs. It makes me feel great to think of all those 'hundreds' of couples who now have a set of my photographs in their homes ..

Happy anniversary, Judi and Chris ..  

Rain! Hurrah ..

A month ago, our garden was flooded. Spring was only just making itself felt and I feared for our poor old flower bulbs, underground and underwater. Four weeks later and the ground is rock hard. Weeks of winter rain has drained away, leaving the soil as cracked as the Kalahari. Nobody seems to have told the plants though, and they've all been coming up like crazy these past few weeks ..

And now, rain again, and nature is being rewarded for its no-nonsense approach to life. (Hey, it's been doing it for years.) I can't tell you how happy I am to see the skies darkening again, and we've been getting some great thunder and lightning to spice up the party ..

Of course, another aspect of nature is still darkening our lives at the moment. Confinement continues, but I hope my lock-down landscapes bring a little sunshine (and rain) into your day. Don't forget, I'm here if you have any photography questions that need answering ..  

Lock-down three ..

Lock-down Landscape number three .. the same number as the amount of weeks we have left inconfinement. Yeah, right ..

But what? A Jumbo Jet? Well, yes .. I've included it as it's currently as wonderful a sight as the fresh Spring leaves or the horses grazing just beyond our gate or the farmer sowing a new crop in the field by the side of us. The sky above us is normally a cross-roads for aircraft, demonstrating just how inter-connected our little world is. We get planes travelling up from Spain and Morocco to Paris or other parts of Europe, or from Rome and the UAE heading for the USA, and even South America heading for China - but, at the moment, there's barely a thing in the sky. It's working wonders for the reduction in pollution, and playing havoc with my plane-spotting ..

Still, I won't complain. People are going through hell at the moment. My thoughts are (as always) with you all today ..

For Joan and Alan ..

Time for Lock-down Landscape number 2, my new series of shots taken from, or within our garden ..

Sadly, since my last blog, two is also the number of deaths I've heard about, of people I know back in the UK. How sad. RIP Joan and Alan ..

President Macron has told us that the confinement will finish on May 11th. Personally, I think that's a bit too optimistic, and I'm sure I'll be shooting my landcsapes for quite a while yet. Don't forget, I'm here to answer any photography questions you might have about shooting landscapes and flowers ..

Life goes on .. it has too!

The start of our fourth week of lock-down .. or is it the third? No, the fourth, definitely .. I think!

Trouble is, we can't tell the difference between lock-down and normal life, tucked away in our remote little bit of France. (Not for nothing did a neighbour describe our village as 'the arse-end of nowhere') ..

No, we really are lucky to be a long way from all the problems of the world and, aside from missing our meet-ups at the bar and our bike rides with friends, life goes on as normal here. (I'm not telling you this as a way to gloat or to show off, it's just a fact) ..

Now, I say normal but, of course, we're impacted as much as many. The gîte has had to close, so that's obviously affected us, and mask-wearing and limited shopping trips are also now the norm. It's a shame, but a couple of visits from UK-based family and friends have had to be postponed, and the lovely French habit of greeting friends with a kiss on each cheek has also had to be put on the back-burner, too. Mwah, mwah ..

Life goes on, though. It has too! There's no stopping Spring, in all its magnificent beauty, so I've decided to start shooting a series of 'Lock-down Landscapes', featuring pictures I can take either from, or within, our garden. So, here's number one, and I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions about any of the shots, or photography in general, either technical or artistic, then drop me a line. In these days of teaching from home, sending you an answer is the least I can do .. 

 

  

These Days ..

I haven't blogged for a while. Been a lot going on, hasn't there? And it was on the subject of the Coronavirus that I started thinking about songs to go with the topic. 'Stuck with you' for those self-isolating with close family, 'We'll meet again', for people missing their friends .. that sort of thing.

Of course, Joy Division's 'Isolation' came into my head very early on, as did 'Transmission' and, of course, 'Incubation', but when I started to think more about it more, an amazing thing happened and before I knew it I'd written a 'poem' that includes every single song by the band. (As far as I know!!)

So, seeing as every other bloody thing on the planet has been stopped in its tracks, I'll leave you with this for today and hope you feel confident that, one day, we'll be back to normal.

On second thoughts, normal was getting pretty damned crazy, wasn't it? Ah, I think I've got the topic for my next blog ..

Now that's different ..

Busy couple of weeks for yours truly, including two jobs that were 'first time' for me ..

Firstly, I had a portrait session at my studio - with ten adults! - but the two 'different' jobs both came last week in the shape of a gig and a wedding ..

Now, of course, I've photographed lots of gigs in my time but I've never actually been commissioned to shoot one before. Amazing as it sounds, it's true. So I was delighted when a local band called !GeRald! (And that's how they spell it) asked me to photograph one of their gigs. Rock on, boys ..

The second unusual job, the wedding, was different because both the bride and the groom were in their (let's say) very late sixties!! Didn't stop it being a great day though, and I loved being the only English person there, giving me an extra challenge on top of handling the photography.
Felicitations, Odile et Michel ..

Now, time for a breather. I'm not used to all this work ..   

Punk's not dead ..

A lot of people look at my Joy Division photographs and say "Isn't the audience young?" Hardly surprising when you consider the gig was held in a youth club, but those teenagers had nothing on some of the people in the crowd at a gig last night ..

I was asked to photograph at a little music festival in a town near here, and found out straight away it was going to be a bit of a family affair. These kids were there to support their Mums and Dads, all playing in the groups. (Either that or the parents were trying to save on babysitters!) Whichever way, the nippers were having a blast, bopping away and singing along to songs they knew.

Punk's not dead, and it won't be for a long, long time looking at these lot! 

Brexit Day ..

So here we are .. Brexit Day. Lesley and I were distraught when the UK voted to leave Europe, as we were right on the verge of committing ourselves to moving over to France. Now, we just feel happy that don't live in the UK, as it splits off and sails away to who knows what ..

Don't get me wrong. I'd love it - LOVE IT - if someone came up to me in three years time and said 'Look how well the UK is doing'. That would make my day. But, until then, here's my view of my old country. It's in the bin ..

See you on the other side!

Europe endless ..

My last week as a European and, ironically, I'm trying to keep a British 'stiff upper lip' about the UK's forthcoming Brexit this Friday. (As an ironic wink I'm writing this whilst listening to Kraftwerk's 'Europe Endless'. You can't beat a bit of Krautrock on a Monday morning .. )

This is the very definition of 'up in the air'. We ex-pats haven't got the foggiest idea how it's going to affect our lives over here in France. Hopefully, not too much! Perhaps it'll be just a case of signing up for a new visa, with a little more paperwork to prove our income and so on .. or maybe I'm being as naive as it comes. Lesley and I are lucky. We haven't got kids going through school here and we're not pensioners (yet) relying on the French health system to keep us in good order. What we are though is settled, and fear that any changes might put a spanner in the works of our new life ..

Our fate is in the hands of others. We pray they are understanding, sympathetic and wise ..

The Digital Decade ..

It seems it's fashionable to look back over the years as we reach the end of another decade, so here goes. (Don't worry, it won't take long ..)

I think I can sum up the past ten years in one word. Digital. And if you need a few more words to go with that then how's about 'Digital Photography ruined my career!' ..

Ten years ago I was riding high as a successful Wedding Photographer. I once topped over fifty bookings in a single year. I started shooting them in the year 2000 after Press and PR work started to die back and, bear in mind, back then (Cue: Old man's voice!) everything was shot on film. I would hoik a bloody big Mamiya RZ67 camera up a ladder to shoot my group shots and get a whole 12 frames before I had to change film. Then, along came digital and all of a sudden (Cue: Cliché) everyone was a bloody photographer ..

Now, put away that violin. I'm not writing this to elicit sympathy. I'm just stating the facts and the fact is that, during the past decade, my career - and the careers of many, many others - was shot out of the sky because of digital technology. Actually, if I was to add another word for my decade it would be 'France', and if you'd like some more words to go with that, then I'll throw in 'I'm such a lucky bastard. Thank God we moved here when we did.' I've even got a Wedding to photograph next month ..

Happy New Year. Happy New Decade. I wonder what I'll be writing in another ten years ..

   

Disastrous .. or not!

Twenty years ago we were hurtling towards the biggest man-made disaster .. ever!! As the end of the century approached we were all aghast at the complete and imminent ruination of mankind in the form of .. The Millenium Bug!

It was going to wipe our computers clean, destroy all possibility of life's continuation as we knew it and make all our aircraft fall from the skies. (Cue excuse to use my amusing news photo from the early 80s ..)

And what happened? Nothing! We all got het up into a hissy fit for faff all although, I have to admit, I was a little sorry at the arrival of the year 2000 because I'd made a good few bob working for a PR company tasked with the job of promoting IT care for Millenium Bug computer checks.

I'm kinda, sorta, semi-optimistically hoping that, at least for us in France, the approach of Brexit will fizzle out in a similar way. That, after all the scaremongering, abuse and sad pitting of Brit against Brit, it will all amount to .. well, nothing as bad as we all fear. For us ex-pats in Europe it's going to mean more paperwork for sure but, once we're all in the 'new' systems, I'm praying that life will just go on as normal, and you lot in the UK can have your life apart from Europe and leave us all alone ..

It's either that or I keep a sharp eye out for passing aircraft ..  

 

What Joy ..

I'm feeling rather special at the moment. A very nice French chap has just driven 330 miles to bring me a box of chocolates!..

Ok, perhaps I should give you a little more detail. I was contacted in the summer by a guy who asked if I'd be interested in a project of his concerning Joy Division. He's had a very intriguing idea and wants me to be on board. To that end he drove from his home .. 165 miles away .. to have a coffee and a chat with me, and very happy I was to sign up with his plans. This week he returned .. bearing the lovely box of goodies from his local artisan chocolatier .. to flesh out his project a little further. A lot more people are now involved, and it's starting to sound a proper 'goer' ..

So, we had our coffees, and another lovely chat, and off he went to drive the 165 miles back. He left me with the chocolates .. and a really good feeling about my work. I'll let you know how he gets on with his project. What joy .. 

Dis the Cis ..

Oh, to be 23 again! Actually, I'm quite happy at 59, thank you very much. I'm so glad I grew up in the era that I did. Best music, best time to be a photographer etc., etc ..  and, more to the point, I'd probably be accused of sexual harassment if I was photographed like this now ..

Yes, the bloody world's gone mad, hasn't it? Lesley and I were watching one of the election broadcasts the other day and the candidate kept going on about 'Cis' people. Cis, Cis, bloody Cis! "Lesley," I said. "What is a Cis person?" and Googled it after she'd given me a blank look. Reader, I'll come clean. I am a Cis person. Me! And I've been one all along, apparently. I just didn't know it. Nobody told me. I can only apologise for my actions ..

Folks, 'Cis' means ... er, how can I put this? Normal. A 'Cis' person is just a man or woman who believes they are a man or woman. That means, for me, that I'm a bloke and I fancy women. An ever-narrowing category of human being, it seems ..

What is going on when 'normal' has to be categorised by .. erm, other people. I'm reminded of a character in that fantastic film 'Things to do in Denver when you're dead'. "Hey, give it a name," he'd say. So I'm going to Dis the Cis and stick with the name I've always used. Normal ..

And I don't care what you think ..

(Quick photo explanation. These ladies in .. yes, 1983 .. had just formed a kind of better class 'Kiss-o-gram' company and I'd gone along to take a shot for the Manchester Evening News. God, how times have changed ..)

Home is where the heart is ..

Following on from a recent 'Interiors' shoot at a rather grand house not far from here, I was delighted to be asked by an estate agent to photograph two properties for her yesterday. This is an area of work I've been trying to get into ever since I moved to France as it was, of course, something I did on a regular basis back in the UK. This photography is completely different to all the 'people-based' stuff I would normally shoot but I love this kind of work and thrive on its creative potential. Ironically - for something so static - it's still quite pressured work. Constantly changing light and anxious owners, hovering around and often eager to get you out of their house, are just two of the challenges I'd normally face. A seller won't realise that there's more to interior photography than just pointing and shooting and generally won't understand why I've taken fifteen shots from the same angle just beside their bedside table!

Still, I'm hoping this leads onto more work of this kind. The owner of the 'grand' house said my photography was "AMAZING!!!!!" (His capitals, and I counted the exclamation marks for accuracy) and the estate agent mailed me to say the shots were "great", so I guess I'm getting the hang of it!..  

A Lidl bit of lingo ..

                    







A car pulled up by our garden the other day and a young lady got out and asked - in French - for directions to an event that was taking place nearby. Happily I was able to help her out and she went on her way with a chirpy 'Bon weekend!' ..

And then it occurred to me. All the time I ever spent learning French at school I was only ever taught to ask for directions, not to give them: "Où est la gare?" and all that jazz. We've lived in France now for over two years and, little by little, my French is slowly improving so it made me feel really good to be on the other side of the question ..

And anyway, without French how would I ever converse with the two new lads at badminton? They're German, so French is our common language. Or the two guys who're currently staying at our gîte whilst they work on the construction of a new nearby Lidl store? They're Polish! Thank God for French! Ooh, and can't wait to go to the new Lidl ..

Today's photographs have - evidently - nothing to do with linguistics but they were taking during this morning's sunrise, the first after the end of British Summer Time. I figured they were as good as anything I could show you today! ..

Catching up ..

I've written three children's books and I'm hawking them around like mad. In the last half hour I've genuinely had three rejections (Just standard replies. The same one for each book!) from one literary agent but, earlier this week, I thought I'd had the nicest reply I've ever had ..

"Your submission caught my eye, so I read it straight away."

Brilliant!

Sadly, this was followed by "I didn't quite love it enough to take things further."

Ooooh, so close!

Still, I keep trying and, like a certain .. er, what's her name? .. JK something, I'll keep going and hope that one day my work will land on the desk of someone who's looking for exactly what I have to offer ..

Anyway, I'm writing this because I thought it was time for a catch up. I haven't blogged for ages. Of course, I'm not now living the life I did, where a Wedding blog, or a PR blog, would have tripped from my stuttering fingertips every other day. Truth is, a little bit of that was because "they" said that, as a pro snapper, it was important to blog to build up business. Never worked, of course, but I got/get the blast from simply doing the writing ..

I suppose a reason I don't blog as much now is because I'd just bombard you with a ton of 'Oh wow, it's amazing here' gush .. and so I hold back. But the truth is .. it's amazing here! And now I know that telling you that has a worth because an old pal of mine .. I'm talking childhood, I'm talking 1970 .. got in touch the other day and told me that he knew I'd moved to France because he followed my blog.
Blogging has a value, after all!..

The world is going mad beyond the bounds of our tiny bucolic idyll. I try to ignore it and concentrate on hummingbird moths and cycling .. but I know it's all there and it's bloody depressing. Do you want to know what caused a 'stir' in our village today? There was a duck on the church roof and it was suggested I get a shot for the monthly magazine. I missed it .. couldn't get there before the noon bell scared it off .. but it put a great big smile on my face. It was as far away as I could get from my former life .. and I loved it.

A sunrise shot over our beautiful farm fields is what I offer you today. Calm, peace, happiness. Now I just gotta get a publisher to like my books ..    

Two years ..

It's two years to the day since I shot a Wedding in the UK. Happy Anniversary to Emma and Chris! Two years ago August 28th was the Late Summer Bank Holiday in England and I spent the day in a funny old mood - enjoying the Wedding yet feeling sad that it would be my last in the UK. However time moves on and now I feel a world away from all of that. I miss photographing weddings - of course I do - but what I don't miss is all the stress of trying to get the bookings. That was the hard work .. especially in these days of budgets and uncles with 'a good camera'. The wedding photography market is saturated now with so-called photographers - amateurs making a few bob on the side, and supposedly 'pro' photographers who take £300 for a couple of hours' work on a Saturday and then go back to being a gas-fitter on Monday morning. I'll more than happily shoot another wedding if I'm asked but no, I don't miss that 'marketing' side of things one little bit ..

(And here I am, hogging the camera in my last ever group shot)

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 ..

Feelin' hot, hot, hot ..

We're heading for a rather worrying 'canicule' - or heatwave - here in France today. On the weather forecast, parts of the country have a bright red 42˚ over the top of them (Not us .. we're only due 40˚!!) ..

My thoughts drift back to the legendary 'Summer of '76' in England, when it was absolutely scorchio for weeks on end. At the time, having just left school, I was working part-time in a bakery and, believe it or not, it was so hot in there that we used to go outside to cool down. Speaking of which, here's an appropriate shot from my archive - little Lisa have an ice-lolly and a cool down in a kiddy's bath on her front doorstep. Can you imagine the outcry if I'd taken this photograph today?
We live in sad, sad times ..

Paris ..

Some shots from my weekend trip to Paris .. including tourists, traffic, touts, tat and my €11 beer at Notre Dame. Good God ..

The Paris Air No-Show

Regular readers of this blog - hello, both of you - will know I always try to make the annual pilgrimage to RIAT, the big RAF Air Show in Gloucestershire. This year - seeing as I now live in France - I decided I'd go to the Paris Air Show instead.
Big mistake! It was rubbish ..

I feel such a sense of anti-climax this morning, having returned home yesterday utterly disappointed with what would normally be a highlight of my year. The show, at Le Bourget airfield, is not a patch on RIAT and I can only console myself with the knowledge that I now never need bother with Paris ever again. I know it's mainly a trade show but I didn't realise just how much of it is actually given over to the business of selling aircraft and parts. Any actually flying displays are almost just chucked in as an after-thought. And that's if you can find a space to actually see the flying. It was a bit of a Paris Air No-Show, really. The crowds were horrendous and the space given over to viewing the displays was pathetically small. I think this shot sums it up. Having made their way to the outskirts of Paris, all these people could do was watch the aerobatics on a big screen. A bit pointless, really ..

Oh RIAT, I'm sorry. I'll be back next year, I promise ..        

Gardening ..

 At the corner of our street in the UK was the home of an elderly man and woman and I'd see them in front of it, practically every day, working hard on a garden that must have been about six feet square. It was tiny yet there they were, weeding and trimming and tidying. Don't get me wrong, I was a very keen gardener in the UK but even I thought 'God, how boring' .. and now I am that couple. I'm retired and I spend every waking moment in our garden, weeding and trimming and tidying .. and digging and planting and transplanting and sowing and dividing and .. photographing.

You'll be aware of my Florescence flower photography series of course, but this is 'real life' photography - in situ - with the ever-changing light that our wide open garden offers up to my lens. It's beautiful and constantly evolving and I realise now that the elderly couple in Warrington weren't gardening, they were pouring their love into something that gives so much in return. I'm sorry I ever thought you might be boring ..  

All hail, Bowdon Vale

Two packages have arrived in the post this week - a DVD in one and a magazine in the other - and I'm pleased to say they both feature some of my music photographs from Bowdon Vale Youth Club in Manchester. It was there in 1979 - aged just 18 - that I photographed Joy Division and The Freshies - two 'up and coming' local bands. The rise and sustained popularity of Joy Division is known to all - the 'oh-so-near' failure of The Freshies not so well documented ..

'Louder Than War' magazine features one of my shots on its cover and two other images of Joy Division in a celebration of the 40th anniversary of one of their albums, and I have several of my pictures of The Freshies used in a brilliant new documentary film about their lead singer. 'Being Frank' is a fascinating look at the life of Chris Sievey, the man inside the head of the comedy character 'Frank Sidebottom'. He turned to 'being Frank' after getting nowhere with The Freshies but it was whilst he was still trying to make it with the band that I set up a morning's photography with them on the sunny streets of Manchester. One of the stills is featured here - the lads running down the spiral car-park entrance to Tesco's in Sale. Gosh, what memories ..

The magazine article is really good and the DVD is incredible. I highly recommend them. Sad to think that Ian Curtis and Chris Sievey are now both dead but lovely to think my work is playing a part in keeping their memories alive. Thank God I went to that little club all those years back.
All hail, Bowdon Vale ..
  

Ten years gone ..

It's the tenth anniversary of the death of my Dad. Funny, mad, daft, sentimental old Joe O'Neill. Miss him to bits. Now give me my camera back, you old bugger ... x

The Woolworth's Fire ..

Hot on the heels of my blog about Maggie Thatcher, I was reminded of something else that happened forty years ago this month. In the light of the Notre Dame fire, it's a rather poignant memory, too. Does anyone remember the horrendous fire that killed ten people in the Woolworth's store in Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens?..

I was a newby 18 year old on Messenger Group Newspapers when I heard the news on the radio. Myself and another photographer shot into 'town' and began to take pictures, self-importantly walking in and amongst the firemen as they went about their difficult work. What I didn't know was that, around the side of the building, those ten poor victims were trapped and facing the last few minutes of their lives. I still shudder when I think of the horror ..

 

Mrs Margaret Thatcher ..

Barely six months into my first ever job as a press photographer, I can still remember the day a lady called Margaret Thatcher hit the campaign trail in our little town, and we all know how successful she was with that! Now I read that next month will be the 40th anniversary of her coming to power.
Oh, my bloody God. Where did those 40 years go?..

As it happens, I was to photograph Maggie one more time, and this time it was in a much more intimate setting as she prepared to launch her autobiography. As she was in book-signing mood, I asked if she would add her name to my little autograph book, which she happily did and which I still possess to this day ..

I don't care what you think about her politics, but you have to admit she was a hell of a figure during the late 20th century and I for one am really proud to say I actually met her in the flesh ..

Wow!..

Following on from my night of star-shooting, I sent some of the pictures to an old pal in the UK. John Fox is a former photographer at the Manchester Evening News and now gives talks on Astro-Photography. He very kindly emailed me back with the word "Wow!" and then proceeded to identify and caption everything in what, to me, was just a pretty picture of the night sky. I was amazed, I am in awe and, on the day that a Black Hole was photographed for the first ever time, I am absolutely gob-smacked by what my camera has captured. And the distances and sizes of everything out there! These star-clouds and nebulae are 5, 6 and 7,000 light years away, yet still within our own Milky Way Galaxy. Imagine that. So far away and yet light travelling for up to 7,000 years landed on my camera sensor for a mere five seconds and recorded an image like this!

John, I think "Wow!" sums it up nicely ..

 

Stars in your eyes ..

I find it very exciting that today we might be on the verge of seeing the first ever photograph of a Black Hole. Scientists have teasingly announced that they "may" be revealing an image later this afternoon ..

By sheer coincidence I was up at 4 this morning to take some 'sky' pictures of my own. We get some really clear skies in our part of France and I'm trying to interest astronomers in coming to stay at our gîte for some tip-top night-time viewing. I'm being helped in that by an old snapper pal of mine, who  is head-honcho of an astronomical society back in the UK. He gives talks on astro-photography and has actually already used some of my photographs in his talks ..

Now might also be a good time to tell you that I've written and illustrated a children's adventure story about a Black Hole. It went off yesterday into that dark unknown world of literary agents and I'm hoping that all these coincidences mean it's 'in the stars' that it'll find a publisher.
Watch this space (Ho ho ..)

One more coincidence .. and I swear this is true. As I finished writing this blog a track by Alan Parsons came on the radio.  Which track? Eye in the Sky. I kid you not!..

Anyway, for anyone interested, my shots show Acturus, with three shooting stars (Top left); Jupiter and a section of The Milky Way (Top right); Polaris (Bottom left) and the constellation of Lyra (Bottom right).

It was 40 years ago tonight ..

I was a skinny, spotty 18 year old photographer when, exactly 40 years ago tonight, I took my camera to a gig in a local youth club and shot a set of photographs that are still relevant to this day.

I can still remember the shock as Ian Curtis started his wild, whiplash dancing, and I can still remember getting onto the stage, standing behind Peter Hook and being told, in no uncertain terms, to "Fuck off!"

This photograph is the poster from the first exhibition I had of these photographs - an incredible 25 years after the death of Ian. Now another 15 years have passed. It gives me great pleasure that these photographs are still used in magazines and other publications - a tribute to the late, great lead singer.

RIP Ian Curtis. 

Hey mister, take my picture ..

When you think of great 'street' photographers the names Roger Mayne and Shirley Baker will, naturally, be up there in your top ten. So imagine how delighted I am to have some of my photographs included in a book with some of theirs.
I'm chuffed to bits, as they say ..

The book - 'Paradise Street' - is full of pictures of children playing in the street (A rare sight these days) and has just been published by the renowned Hoxton Mini Press in London. My copy was posted to me yesterday and I can't wait to see it. Not only that but the lady who compiled the collection was interviewed on Radio London last week and gave me a lovely name check. (Cheers, Luci. Back at ya!) Oooh, I'm dizzy with the fame. Touch my robe. Orderly line for autographs ..

The thing is that, thinking back to my 'archive' photographs from the 70s and early 80s, I can only feel sad that those kinds of shots are practically impossible to take these days. Hot on the heels of the Michael Jackson 'revelations', it's a horrible thing to know that, nowadays, a general view of photographers is that we're all perverted pædophiles. Why are you going up to kids in the street with a camera, you weirdo? Even sadder for me is the fact that the poor kids have been drilled to think the same thing. Lift a camera these days and it's the norm now to have 'Pædo' yelled at you by children not even ten years old. The beauty of the photograph of mine that's featured here is that those kids were actively trying to get into my photographs. Their cry of "Hey, mister, take my picture" is a line not many snappers will hear in the sunny twenty-first century. What a difference 42 years makes. Innocence lost, and it makes me sad ..

(Click on the picture to see one of my shots as it appears in the book ..)