These photos date from the mid 1970's to the late 1980's and a few from the 90's. I wish to thank everyone who allowed me to photograph them.
When I got to London in late 1982 I had shot so many people that I wasn't really a beginner any more. I'd processed my first roll of black and white film in 1974. Like many others I had an ad hoc darkroom in my bedroom, with the enlarger sat on my bed. I was able to produce images that got me into West Sussex College of Design in September 1975. Big thanks to Frank Youngs who pushed so that I could join. The following two years were fabulously productive. I didn't learn a lot from the lecturers but being surrounded by so many creative and fun people was a wonderful experience.
I left college to work for London photographer, Jerry Mason, in 1976; an utterly crazy time where more daft things happened than I can even remember. I went back to college in 1981/2 to complete my final year, where I really started to produce work of a decent standard.
Worthing in the 1970's and 80's was a quiet, relaxed and friendly place. One would walk around the corner to bump into yet another group of friends. I was blessed by a fun and often good-looking bunch of friends, Worthing's in-crowd who often orbited around 'The Same' a local band who came very close to the big time.
A typical student photo shoot would consist of finding a decent location, WSCD had lots of these places, where I would photograph models. Never using too much film, the shoot would only ever take forty minutes. When completed often a trip to the Toby Jug tea rooms was a frequent occurrence. Oddly, twenty years later, when shooting for stock libraries in Europe and South Africa the process was much the same, but just with much longer days and higher expenditure.
I've included some images from commissions in the 1980's. I should like to thank Steve Bush who worked for EMAP for giving me a real boost with several years of commissions for Smash Hits and Just Seventeen. This was the leg up that I needed to get going.
Photography used to be an amalgam of alchemy, luck and chemistry. It took me twelve years to get a total grip on the process, so very different from today where we all carry around a phone/computer/camera that will always take a near perfect image. So here is a selection of people. Some I recall well, some were good friends who I could call on often as models, others are names that have disappeared into that darkroom in the sky. Thanks again to everyone along the way.
Simon