Where It All Began
My name is David but I’ll answer to Dave, Lad or Mate! As they say, “You can take the lad out of Merseyside but you can’t take Merseyside out of the lad”! I grew up in Port Sunlight on The Wirral on the ‘other side’ of the River Mersey!
The Dell Bridge, Port Sunlight, my childhood playground. The black & white photo is an early one of mine printed in my teenage darkroom in 1980. The colour photo from a visit in 2013.
Early 1970s with my Dad on a fishing holiday. This would have been my first time in the Lake District. I remember telling friends at school that I had been to Scotland, well it had to be with all those mountains and lakes!
For the past forty-eight years since 1977, I have been in love with photography. I have studied photography, worked as a professional photographer and printer, dreamt about photography, filled my spare time with photography, exhibited my photography, had my work published including on the cover of a crime novel and even photographed my own wedding!
So where did it all start? My physics teacher at high school encouraged me to complete a project in photography when I was fifteen. No one else had chosen this subject so he suggested I give it a go! I had no real interest in photography at that time, I was more interested in fishing, cycling and skateboarding. My parents were more into photography than I was. They documented family life with both colour and black & white photos at every family gathering or occasion. Now that Mum & Dad are no longer with us, those photos are the most precious prints I own. I’ve included a few family photographs in this blog post because, after all, this is a photography website!
Me and my sister Anne, 1969. Yes, the dog is real and so is that wallpaper!
My school project was all theory with no practical experience and we didn’t have a darkroom at school. So as my project gradually drew me into the world of cameras and how they worked, I began to realise I needed to become a photographer, and for that I needed my own camera!
I don’t quite remember how, but I managed to persuade my Dad to buy me a proper camera. I exposed a few rolls of film and had them developed at the local camera shop, but it wasn’t long before I was asking Dad to buy me an enlarger so I could develop and print my own photos.
A trip to the local hardware shop to buy two large sheets of hardboard and I soon turned my teenage bedroom into a darkroom! One sheet of hardboard was for blocking out the window light and the other lay across my bed so I could set up my enlarger and tray of chemicals on top. I also took over the bathroom to wash my film and prints! When I watched my first image appear in a tray of chemicals, it was like magic and I was totally hooked.
As soon as I was old enough to leave school, I headed straight to art collage to study photography full time for two years, and so began a lifelong love for this creative process.
In my next blog post I’ll write about my journey from college to where I am today.
Cheers for now,
David.
Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this post.
A teenager’s portrait of his parents in 1979. Harry, a gritty uncompromising black & white study and Nancy, soft and warm, a bit like me actually!
Mum, Dad, me and my sister Anne. A night out in 1968 with my besties for a few bevvies and plenty of ciggies!
They say if you remember the 60s you weren’t really there. It’s a shame I can’t remember wearing those cool clothes!
Dad with my brothers Keith (left) and Rob around 1959. I’m not sure what time of year it was as our front room was always decorated like this!
Mum & Dad, Lancaster 1947. Dad (far left) looks pleased with himself and why not, he’s looking cool with his Box Brownie camera!
This is where it all started, 35 The Ginnel, Port Sunlight, my childhood home. The window on the top left was by bedroom which also served as my darkroom! Maybe there should be a Blue Plaque there!?