Over the years I’ve made images of tens of thousands of people … it’s what I enjoy doing and I’m extremely fortunate that I’ve managed to eke out a meagre living doing just that. However, strangely, throughout my life there have been very very few photographs taken of myself. Even as a child I was rarely photographed and only a handful of pics remain. (Looking in the mirror I suppose that is not so surprising!)
It was, indeed then, very surprising to receive a request from South Korea’s distinguished “Monthly Photography” magazine to provide a photograph of myself as a small child. Their idea was to collect images of photographers from around the World as young children and contrast the photographs in an pic story entitled “In Memory”.
The article featured early childhood photographs of thirty two photographers including myself, a host of Korean photographers and a selection of renowned International photographers and photo artists – Alberto Salván Zulueta (Spain), Michal Solarski (UK), Matthieu Gafsou (Switzerland), Mary Fashbaugh (USA), Sylvia Kowalczyk (Poland), John Goto (UK), Jonny Briggs (UK), Eduardo Leal (Portugal) and Eeva Hannula (Finland) – all of which are much more accomplished than I !
This – very roughly translated from the (edited) Korean text – is their rationale – “We asked photographers from Korea and around the World to send photos of themselves and their families when they were very young. Every photographer supplied a photo that told a real story of childhood in these countries in days long gone. There are a lot of real stories in these powerful family photos. Every generation has a different lifestyle and we can see that in the photographs. But time goes on …
More importantly these photographs show that family love never changes. Those old photos help us think about the real meaning of the family”.
The caption under my pic roughly translates (again edited) to – “I was about 3 years – my sister 6 years older – that day Queen Elizabeth visited our neighbourhood, went past our house and along our street .We were waiting for the Queen wearing best dressed and fancy dress. She came past our house in her royal limousine. When the Queen had gone we had a street carnival. My sister grabbed my hand during a very special moment for the neighbourhood”.
Yes – that is me on the top right! (To my right is my sister Brenda and then our two boy neighbours.)
Below I’ve posted images of the relevant pages of the 15 page article, cover of the issue of “Monthly Photography” … and a copy of the pic from my childhood. ©
