For my whole life I have been taking photographs. Oh yes, you might think, another one of those types. And you’d be right. I’ve probably had more drinks, debt and sex than you. I wake up at a different time each day. Sometimes - imagine this - I even drink coffee after seven p.m. Shocking. This is, of course, all a hangover from my younger days; I’m getting older now and I’m fairly responsible. But it seems this is a necessary preface when I tell people that I am a photographer. Otherwise they spend all their time trying to figure out which category it is I fall into. And the answer, as per, is really very simple: mine.
So, I’ll begin. For my whole life, I have been taking photographs. Yes, it has made me quite successful. But for the most part it has been a real nuisance. I have missed a good many opportunities. I don’t talk about them, because then people come around with the usual crap of how “you have to make sacrifices” and I want to take a photograph of that bored, uncertain look on their faces whilst they’re talking. I never saw these things as sacrifices; the word never entered my mind. I just missed some opportunities, here and there. For my whole life, I have been taking photographs.
My first big break came with a band called The Sinceres. They were crap. But they were all-white, all-British, and managed some catchy melodies. After a chance encounter on the streets of Reading, I, aged fourteen, became their ‘designated band photographer’. They didn’t pay me financially, which was fine. Even when they got a bit of local recognition, they just made sure I could keep my ‘habits’ alive. It was alright. We sort of stagnated. But then I scored a shot of them on stage at PGP, which was later used by another, much larger band some years later, as artwork for one of their own singles.
That’s what started it all. When that single topped the UK charts I very quickly lost touch with The Sinceres. Kate, too. But I was in demand. The PGP shot launched me to new places, new cameras and new disciplines. The photo put me in a new class, for some reason. It must have had something in it that resonated with people, like a football falling through the air being struck at just the right moment. I photographed Kate Moss. I got free tickets to Glastonbury - six years in a row. I went to Milan. And when I applied to work with the Earth As One team, they actually read my CV.
I remember the interview. I was thirty-eight, and I only had one or two wildlife projects under my belt at the time (if you count photographing the shapes of tree branches and river inlets as ‘wildlife’). I wasn’t by any means a candidate even worth considering. My work was, for the usual reasons, pretty varied, and I told them as much in the interview. I just enjoyed taking photographs, so I did. Often in different environments. Especially in different environments. It was a basic explanation that not only explained my messy career but also my sometimes messy personality. Short, simple and at least half true. I was sure it had pissed the interviewer off, because she kept looking at me over her glasses instead of through them. I had no place trying to get onto this team of well-established, upright conservationist people. I suspected we had led fairly different lives up until that point.
So, you can imagine my surprise when, two weeks later, they offered me the post, over the phone, ticket already booked. I was sitting alone in my apartment, and my interviewer spoke on the line:
“You know, we’re taking a bit of a gamble here, George. We’ve really no idea what to expect from you.”
I had to chuckle. What to expect? Pfft. The answer was really very simple.
Me.
read the original story (and see some very cool photos) (BBC News):
Mangrove forests: Steely gaze of young tigress wins photo award - BBC News
The views expressed in this publication do not reflect the views of the author. The stories themselves are based on imagined events. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is fictitious and should not be taken as representative.
PGP?
Once again another good take on a MSM story and yes some cracking photographs!