I have to thank my mother giving all of us (brothers) Kodak Brownie 127 cameras. I still have my album of the photos taken from age around 6 with that camera.
My mother used, herself, a Box Brownie. Here I am with that camera concentrating hard on the composition of I don’t know what. (My father in the background).
In the last few weeks at the end of my first year in boarding school I seemed to have persuaded my mother to lend me that camera and I took a few shots of the new friends I had made before we left to live in another country.
Heathcote’s Army. Bit ‘Lord of the Flies’. If you have ever experienced such an environment it only takes a slight leap of imagination to that scenario.
I think it is interesting sociologically and evolutionary, this need for group belonging and association.
The great thing was we were free, at certain times, to roam in this copse, where, in our gangs, we would play out battles, and war games. Best get it out if the system harmlessly before it gets serious later on. Nowadays the copse is out of bounds, health and safety and all that, but it was the healthiest thing we were able to pursue.
A farewell to friends. The last day of term before leaving to move to a new country. You can see the essential character in each boy: the solid one; the shy, brainy one; the confident one; the extrovert ..
Reviewing this now and having taken some portraits, all in a casual setting, I realise that a good portrait is one where the atmosphere is such that allows the sitter to be free and uninhibited to relax into themselves and their emotion at that time. Photography being of the instant, has to capture in that moment the essence of that person.
Some impromptu portraits of mine:
http://www.ipercept.co.uk/album/impromptu-portraits
I would like to think I took this but I have to attribute this one to my mother as I don’t think I would be so creative, aged 8, to frame such a composition. I have, since, taken many photos using a similar framing.
I do remember the occasion, the sports day, with crustless cucumber sandwiches and tea. If I recall correctly, we were able to scavenge the crusts after.
Five years later, having lived in three countries, four if you include the school I went to in that period, we returned to England and to the same school and friends.