John’s first camera cost eight shillings from Woolworths and the viewfinder was a piece of bent wire fastened to the top. John’s first “proper” camera was a fully manual Russian made Zenit B. It cost twenty-five pounds, which was two weeks’ wages in the early 1970s. As it was manual, you had to learn about the relationship between aperture, exposure, and film speed. “Rules” such as the Intersection of Thirds, Foreground, Middle ground, and Background, became ingrained.
Even in those days of black and white film, John still enjoyed taking photos of people though obviously, it wasn’t practical to take as many shots as is customary nowadays. When John retired in 2008, he chose a Canon DSLR camera as his leaving present. Since then, he has had the opportunity to travel to quite a few European countries, North Africa, Asia, and North America, always accompanied by his camera.
Many of John’s favourite photos of people though have been taken in his own backyard in Manchester and Bolton. This exhibition explores John’s relationship between his camera and capturing candid shots of ‘people’ on his travels both at home and abroad.
The Preview is Friday 28th October from 7 pm – 9 pm and then continues over the weekend Sat 29th & Sun 30th October from 12 – 4 pm.