0:00:16 > 0:00:20Norman really isn't my name, my name really is Ronald Smith.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42The name is Parkinson.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45The other photographers call me The Governor.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49My life's work is a constant search for beautiful women.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52And women, like Rome, are eternal.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03He was a real patriarch.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06And he loved women.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09And he loved beauty.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13He was charming. The man was total charm.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17Parkinson was an amazing photographer.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21He is still inspiring me.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25He inspired me through my modelling period,
0:01:25 > 0:01:29through my early days of being a fashion editor.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34He taught me. He taught me everything I know. He really did.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39I loved Norman Parkinson. He was, you know,
0:01:39 > 0:01:41an old-style gentleman photographer.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46He was very polite, very thoughtful.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48Except he wanted his picture.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50That's it. Now that's better. That way.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54But you must push it into her waist first.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59The whole coat. Yes, exactly. Exactly. You've got it.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02Parkinson proved again and again, you know,
0:02:02 > 0:02:05when you look at his photos, how timeless they are.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12There's something different about them.
0:02:12 > 0:02:13They're quirky.
0:02:15 > 0:02:16They seem alive.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35Elegant, no matter what.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39More movement than before.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44More relaxed than before.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49I don't think he was bound by the rules, you know, of how you pose
0:02:49 > 0:02:53or what you do or what the editor thinks it should be.
0:02:54 > 0:02:59And I don't think he was dictated to by the editors.
0:02:59 > 0:03:00He just was Parkinson.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04If they didn't want his photographs they'd have to go somewhere else.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09But a lot more freedom, which gave us all more freedom.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19How unusual is it for a photographer to have a 50-year career?
0:03:19 > 0:03:21I think it was almost 60, actually.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25But it's pretty unusual, most photographers have ten years
0:03:25 > 0:03:28or less, a sort of five-year career.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31And having done lots of exhibitions over the years,
0:03:31 > 0:03:33it's extraordinary how few manage
0:03:33 > 0:03:36to reinvent themselves, to keep going and adapt to the times.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41And I think that's one of the outstanding things about Parkinson's life and career.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44That's great. And I think a little more profile.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47A little more. A little more. That's it. That's great.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49And cross the left leg a bit more over the right.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52The thing about Parkinson was the fantastic energy he had.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55- He was just such a life force. - Like this, look.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00- That's the sort of thing. That's perfect. Right. - BOTH LAUGH
0:04:00 > 0:04:02Here we go!
0:04:04 > 0:04:07Whenever you were in his presence, you were energised by it.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10You've had really had a good life in many ways, you know,
0:04:10 > 0:04:14cosseted childhood with the good schools and so on.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19You think that's so? I'll tell you about my cosseted childhood.
0:04:19 > 0:04:24I was born... Well, I lived the first, oh, 20 years of my life
0:04:24 > 0:04:27in a semi-detached house in Putney.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35BIRDSONG
0:04:35 > 0:04:39My father was a sort of barrister of law that never got a brief.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45They did manage to send me to a good school, Westminster.
0:04:45 > 0:04:51One had to run the gamut of a mile or so to Putney Bridge Station.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56And in those days the top hat was a marvellous thing to throw tomatoes at.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Marvellous school. I really loved it.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05I had some terrible reports there. I looked out of the window the whole time.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07I couldn't see the point of this education,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10but I could see things going on on the street.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26You didn't think of taking up art?
0:05:26 > 0:05:28Well, I did but I was too lazy.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32I wanted to get there quicker.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42I could only see that one would photograph debs
0:05:42 > 0:05:45and hope that they'd buy the pictures.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48My father, who was never a very ambitious man,
0:05:48 > 0:05:50said that I'd taken leave of my senses. He said,
0:05:50 > 0:05:55"If you want to be a photographer, you have to start, say, in High Street Putney
0:05:55 > 0:05:58"and then work up! But you don't start at the top."
0:06:08 > 0:06:13That whole Mayfair, West End, photography world is very cut-throat.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17There are an awful lot of them and there are only so many debs per season
0:06:17 > 0:06:20and they're all fighting for that sort of work.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23Parkinson tends to succeed
0:06:23 > 0:06:27because he's, you know, he's 21
0:06:27 > 0:06:28when he opens his studio,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32He's sort of their own age, he's sort of gallant,
0:06:32 > 0:06:39he's good fun, he owns this rather fast sort of OM four-seater tourer sports car.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42And he's allegedly the Junior Waltz Champion of England.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Lie down.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47Girls love him.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59Ronald Smith, when he becomes Norman Parkinson,
0:06:59 > 0:07:05I think tries to escape his resolutely middle-class upbringing.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08That's the great thing about photographers, they can reinvent themselves.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12And I think Parkinson reinvented himself
0:07:12 > 0:07:16as this sort of rather exotic figure.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20But I've often thought it was interesting that one should change one's name TO Norman,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23that's the kind of name you sort of change FROM.
0:07:29 > 0:07:36Way back in the '30s, when I was a young aspiring snapper,
0:07:36 > 0:07:41I used to see in magazines these wonderful women, untouchable,
0:07:41 > 0:07:43with their knees bolted together.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Now this is Pamela Minchin, 1939.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01I had the most antique camera that cost me £15
0:08:01 > 0:08:04and you used to pull through film packs, it was a quarter plate.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07And the girl only did the jump about three times
0:08:07 > 0:08:11and when at night I pulled that negative out of the soup,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14I was hooked forever on photography.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26All I did was I knew a few girls who'd sit in an open
0:08:26 > 0:08:30Alfa Romeo with me and throw a stick for the dog,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33so when they gave me a camera, I just photographed the girl
0:08:33 > 0:08:37jumping over the haycocks and everybody said, "How brilliant!"
0:08:37 > 0:08:40"What a difference!" There was no difference at all,
0:08:40 > 0:08:42those were the girls I knew.
0:08:55 > 0:09:01I'm really interested in the whole of England,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04particularly the Thames Valley,
0:09:04 > 0:09:09because in 1916 we were evacuated down to Bank Farm
0:09:09 > 0:09:14in, I call it Piss Hill, but apparently that's not popular,
0:09:14 > 0:09:15it's called Pishill.
0:09:15 > 0:09:21And it was at Bank Farm that I used to get up into those wonderful woods
0:09:21 > 0:09:26and we even, my sister and I, used to chip flints
0:09:26 > 0:09:31and make them into arrow heads which we'd tie onto bits of stick.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34And there's nothing nicer.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37Even now I can remember the smell of flint cracked
0:09:37 > 0:09:40is as good as a good Pouilly Fume.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11He loved the British countryside,
0:10:11 > 0:10:15and he was a gentleman farmer in the '40s.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19He loved animals, he was great at taking photos of animals.
0:10:19 > 0:10:24And he had pigs throughout his career.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35Along with Cecil Beaton, Norman Parkinson put a uniquely
0:10:35 > 0:10:37British fashion photography on the map.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45By 1941, Parkinson's photographing for Vogue.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56There's always this big question mark over the fact
0:10:56 > 0:10:59he didn't take any role in the armed services during the war,
0:10:59 > 0:11:04but I think it's fair to say that his war photographs
0:11:04 > 0:11:09of the Home Front are invaluable to national morale.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17Many magazines were forced to close during the war,
0:11:17 > 0:11:20Vogue was one that was allowed to continue.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22And, in fact, with an increased paper rationing,
0:11:22 > 0:11:26it was perceived by the Ministry of Information that Vogue
0:11:26 > 0:11:31would be an important boost to the morale of the Home Front.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35Vogue takes its mission very much to heart
0:11:35 > 0:11:38and hones in especially on the land,
0:11:38 > 0:11:43we all have to stick together, we all have to make it through this.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47It needed somebody to articulate that visually
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and in Norman Parkinson they found that person.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56- WINSTON CHURCHILL ARCHIVE: - Hostilities will end officially
0:11:56 > 0:12:02at one minute after midnight tonight, Tuesday the 8th of May.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34If I think of Parkinson, that's the period I think of,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37all those pictures of Parkinson's wife, Wenda,
0:12:37 > 0:12:41the typical English girl. He photographed her so much.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45She understood a photograph really well
0:12:45 > 0:12:47and she was a very elegant woman,
0:12:47 > 0:12:51she dressed in a really wonderful way herself.
0:12:56 > 0:13:02You really feel when he photographs her, there's a look in her eye
0:13:02 > 0:13:08that is not just ordinary, this is someone who really adored him.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10You see it in the pictures,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13there's such a joy in them.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18And there's that little twinkle of humour too, wit,
0:13:18 > 0:13:21that was between her and Parks.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50I'd been invited to America to start working
0:13:50 > 0:13:55and I used to be there for six months or three months of each year,
0:13:55 > 0:13:59when there was football games and racoon coats
0:13:59 > 0:14:03and large two-gallon shakers full of Martinis.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11The American post-war Vogue is an absolutely beautiful production,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14it's sumptuous and suddenly he's found the vibrancy of the city,
0:14:14 > 0:14:18photographing in colour in the streets of Manhattan,
0:14:19 > 0:14:22And makes it his own as much as he did the sort of calm,
0:14:22 > 0:14:26natural elegance of the British countryside.
0:14:35 > 0:14:40I was a little girl from the boroughs of Manhattan, very poor,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42grew up in the Depression.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45I lived in a cold-water flat with my mother alone.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55So for me modelling was a way to make money.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01I started with Vogue in 1946.
0:15:02 > 0:15:11In the 1940s, we were still connected to
0:15:11 > 0:15:14more puritanical values.
0:15:19 > 0:15:25I was very romantic. And it's all full of imagination.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31I was 17 years old.
0:15:32 > 0:15:39And here I am all dressed up in the balcony of the Plaza Hotel.
0:15:40 > 0:15:47I'm in the ideal strapless grey taffeta dress.
0:15:47 > 0:15:53I felt I was in perfect condition, in the perfect setting.
0:15:53 > 0:15:59This man must fall in love with me.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01I mean that's the mentality of the time.
0:16:06 > 0:16:13And what a staggering presence Mr Parkinson, nee Ronald Smith, had.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17The shoot went perfectly.
0:16:17 > 0:16:22It was an unspoken dance.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27At the end of that shoot, when he said, "Well, I think we've got it!"
0:16:28 > 0:16:35The doors of the Plaza Hotel opened.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43A woman walked in who was one of the most beautiful women
0:16:43 > 0:16:47I had ever seen at that time in my life.
0:16:47 > 0:16:57The most elegant. And she had in one of her hands a little hand.
0:17:00 > 0:17:06Parks turned around and said, "Oh, Wenda, come and meet Carmen."
0:17:06 > 0:17:09"Carmen, this is my wife and my son, Simon."
0:17:13 > 0:17:17I had to go home alone.
0:17:17 > 0:17:24I wouldn't be transported off into the sky to some magical place.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28I couldn't even imagine what I was trying to imagine.
0:17:28 > 0:17:29That's called naive.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Is it very difficult,
0:17:40 > 0:17:41being a photographer
0:17:41 > 0:17:46and being with women all the time and being married to one wife?
0:17:48 > 0:17:51No, it's not really very difficult, being a photographer,
0:17:51 > 0:17:56and I think I've said it before, is rather like working in a sweet shop,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59but you just try not to mess around with the liquorice allsorts.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02Or the whipped-cream walnuts?
0:18:02 > 0:18:05I didn't think that I was giving you any cause for jealousy
0:18:05 > 0:18:08although you did have occasional nasty pangs.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Of course you have. Always people are jealous, I think women
0:18:12 > 0:18:17perhaps are jealous if other women are constantly with their husbands.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22Yes, I suppose one does create a sort of fantasy
0:18:22 > 0:18:25and an unreal world in these other women.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28Do you think that any of it's come off on me?
0:18:28 > 0:18:32Well, I think that when you've been on a trip you come home and you talk
0:18:32 > 0:18:35a lot and you don't seem terribly like you. I do think that, yes.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37I don't think the other women wear off on you,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40I think what you've been doing sort of wears off on you.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11He loved to explore.
0:19:12 > 0:19:18Don't tell him there's somewhere you can't go because he'll just make it happen and he did.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22And he used every trip that he went on, even if it was back to the same place,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25to really feel like you were in the country.
0:19:28 > 0:19:34He didn't rely on location books taken by somebody else,
0:19:34 > 0:19:39that, you know, they'd take a picture here and say that's what this place looks like,
0:19:39 > 0:19:43when maybe over here, there was something much more interesting.
0:19:43 > 0:19:50And it's somebody else's point of view and he wanted everything to be his point of view.
0:19:52 > 0:19:59In 1945, Parks, Vogue magazine starts to send you on assignments the world over.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02Now, Wenda, you were the fashion model for one of the earliest of
0:20:02 > 0:20:06those photo sessions at of all places a South African ostrich farm.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11Yes, Eamonn, I might have suspected that my husband would be thinking
0:20:11 > 0:20:15it was a good idea for me to ride one of the ostriches,
0:20:15 > 0:20:17which I did.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22They go about 60 miles an hour. And it immediately took off
0:20:22 > 0:20:27with me trying to steer it by the wings right across the African veldt.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32The last thing I remember Parks saying was, "More profile, Wenda. More profile."
0:20:34 > 0:20:38Brave, he likes a girl that's brave, that will sort of do anything
0:20:38 > 0:20:42and not always, "Oh, I can't do that cos I don't look pretty."
0:21:01 > 0:21:03The models who Parkinson discovered,
0:21:03 > 0:21:09people like Uma Thurman's mother, Nena von Schlebrugge,
0:21:09 > 0:21:13were not your average just pretty face.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20What happened was that Norman Parkinson was on a trip
0:21:20 > 0:21:23to Stockholm, Sweden on a Vogue shoot,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27he wanted to find a natural girl,
0:21:27 > 0:21:29fresh and new.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33And so he sent out different people to the schools
0:21:33 > 0:21:38to stand outside and see who would be coming out of the schoolyard.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43I was 14, and suddenly in front of me
0:21:43 > 0:21:51was this very tall gentleman and he looked at me and he twirled
0:21:51 > 0:21:55his moustache and he said, "I am a photographer from Vogue."
0:21:55 > 0:22:01And I looked up at him bleary-eyed and I said, 'What is Blogue?'
0:22:01 > 0:22:05And I think that was it, you know, he just fell in love with me.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12At 14, I was nearly six feet tall, very skinny,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16so I actually didn't think about myself as beautiful.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Parkinson used to say that I was a natural,
0:22:19 > 0:22:21he said I had natural elegance.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24He brought out what was kind of there, you know,
0:22:24 > 0:22:25which I didn't know about.
0:22:32 > 0:22:33Like theatre, you know?
0:22:33 > 0:22:38What I was wearing set the stage, it became part of it,
0:22:38 > 0:22:41it was me acting with what I was wearing.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52You see, when I photograph a girl in a garment,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54I want her to look as if she owns it.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59Most of the girls that I see around, if you put a mink coat on them,
0:22:59 > 0:23:01you start to wonder how she earned it, you know?
0:23:01 > 0:23:04Was it vertical or was it horizontal?
0:23:04 > 0:23:07But my girls are the vertical earners of mink coats.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27The models were very sophisticated in those days.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34This is what I imagined life was like in the big open world.
0:23:35 > 0:23:36You know, if you went apres skiing,
0:23:36 > 0:23:40you had this special apres ski outfit, which in those days you did.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43And when you went to this dinner you had to dress like that,
0:23:43 > 0:23:48and that party you had to dress like that and if you went to Africa,
0:23:48 > 0:23:53you had to dress like this and you had to be very proper.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56As a young girl, you were dressed like a young woman.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04He actually helped dress me when I arrived,
0:24:04 > 0:24:08because I didn't really have any sense of dressing at all myself.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12He said, "OK, now you have to have a grey suit
0:24:12 > 0:24:16"because everyone needs a grey suit." And we got into his car
0:24:16 > 0:24:18and we went and we went shopping in London.
0:24:24 > 0:24:29He had a funny thing where he never carried any cash, OK?
0:24:29 > 0:24:31So when we would be out on location
0:24:31 > 0:24:34and had to make a phone call or you had to get something,
0:24:34 > 0:24:38we would have to provide it, because he never ever carried cash.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43He also was a little eccentric which was very nice.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48'Today I'm wearing the brown hat.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51'Now the brown hat is not as lucky as the green hat,
0:24:51 > 0:24:55'but I must give the brown hat a chance.' Stay, baby. Stay.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57Here's your hat, Parks.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00'It's rather like training sheep dogs,
0:25:00 > 0:25:03'I know that the original old dirty hat is the good one
0:25:03 > 0:25:07'and then you have to keep training them so that they get the fluency.'
0:25:07 > 0:25:10His magic hat was very important to him,
0:25:10 > 0:25:12he actually did believe it had some power.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16He just would not take a photograph without the hat.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19I can remember we were going up to Connecticut,
0:25:19 > 0:25:22probably about an hour and a half, two hours out of Manhattan and we
0:25:22 > 0:25:24had all of the equipment in the car
0:25:24 > 0:25:27and I said, "You got everything? Yeah. OK, fine."
0:25:27 > 0:25:30And we drove up to Connecticut and as we pulled into the person's driveway,
0:25:30 > 0:25:33he said, "My hat! I forgot my hat!"
0:25:34 > 0:25:41And he said to the driver, "Turn around, we have to go back to Manhattan!"
0:25:42 > 0:25:44'So much depends on luck,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47'you've got to create a situation where anything can happen.'
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Put the camera on.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54'While I'm working with Marissa, we're surrounded by the BBC,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57'but it won't really matter if they're my shot or not.'
0:25:57 > 0:26:03- Ring somebody up that you really like.- Yeah, well, I have an appointment. What time is it?
0:26:03 > 0:26:06No, you don't have an appointment.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10He had fun taking his pictures, it wasn't a stress.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13It was always a pleasure.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16I wish people had that kind of looseness now.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19Does anybody get the number of the Hotel de la Ville?
0:26:19 > 0:26:26Hotel de la Ville? I have it on a napkin. She's great down there, do I have film?
0:26:26 > 0:26:30'You have an assistant and he has the cameras,
0:26:30 > 0:26:32'and then we have this jargon, I say,
0:26:32 > 0:26:38'"I want the Hasselblad with the Fat Man." And we never talked numbers.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42'"I want the Nikon with the zoom."'
0:26:42 > 0:26:47- I'm doing pictures for Vogue. - That's it, chin up, darling, do that again for me.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49Come in again.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51'I've heard some photographers when they go to photograph people,
0:26:51 > 0:26:58'they talk nothing but photography, you know, 5.6, 30th, and you see people dying on the vine.'
0:26:58 > 0:27:01Good. OK, we're done!
0:27:01 > 0:27:04- Can we have a little hand? - Yay!
0:27:04 > 0:27:05'There were just a few seconds there
0:27:05 > 0:27:09'when things really began to happen, about the middle of the last roll.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13'If it hadn't we would have come all the way to Rome for nothing.'
0:27:15 > 0:27:18There's an awful lot of guff talked about photography, isn't there?
0:27:18 > 0:27:23I mean you consciously downplay it all the time, is it an art or a craft or a trade?
0:27:23 > 0:27:25It's a trade. I mean, you know, a carpenter,
0:27:25 > 0:27:30you've got this gadget with a sort of, bit of a beer bottle in the front
0:27:30 > 0:27:35and a piece of sensitised material at the back and a sort of black hole in the middle.
0:27:35 > 0:27:40And I've got some very kind gremlins in that black hole, that's simply it.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44- It has what's needed.- Yes, I think it has. Shall we look at it on the box?
0:27:44 > 0:27:49Yeah. Yeah, I think maybe this is the one. But let's see the alternatives.
0:27:49 > 0:27:55The only thing that worries me a little is the background. You know, I think it's a bit too busy.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58I think it is busy. I think it in a way sets the scene,
0:27:58 > 0:28:03I rather like that feeling, you know, it's got a stop press quality to it.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07He's very modest about his abilities.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09He spends a lot of time dissembling about how he has no idea
0:28:09 > 0:28:13how his photographs happen, it's all to do with hobgoblins in the lens
0:28:13 > 0:28:19and then suddenly this magical thing happens. "Oh, it's amazing!"
0:28:19 > 0:28:24What that overlooks is the fact that he was absolutely skilled
0:28:24 > 0:28:27and technically adept.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31On this one, I'm a bit worried that you're not going to get that purple,
0:28:31 > 0:28:36I mean I don't even think the transparency has got the purple.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40You're putting this whole run of Paris and Italy on the line.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44'A good acid bath... and for me it's back to work again.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48'Girl seeking, new girl seeking.'
0:29:00 > 0:29:04If he hadn't picked me out, I don't think that I would ever have
0:29:04 > 0:29:07gone on to do anything, because I didn't fit the mould at all.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13Parkinson adopted me, basically.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18Right, you ready, girls? Parks is here. Cattle market's about to start next door.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26- Hello. - Hello.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29- Could I have your name, please? - Susanne Bates.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31- Measurements? - 33...
0:29:31 > 0:29:34He did it all the time, he used to come two or three times a year
0:29:34 > 0:29:37and have what he called his "cattle markets".
0:29:38 > 0:29:42- What is it?!- Rose. - OK. Stand up.
0:29:44 > 0:29:45Oh, yes. All right.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48It was quite rare for him to find someone that he wanted.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50He knew exactly what he was looking for
0:29:50 > 0:29:55and it often wasn't what anybody would expect.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57Oh, don't worry.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01It's only because the photographers are getting little. If you get tall photographers, you get tall models.
0:30:01 > 0:30:08He liked raw material, he liked to sort of see something in somebody that nobody else could see
0:30:08 > 0:30:14and make something for himself, you know, and make something out of that person.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18What do you look for in a girl anyway, you know, the raw material?
0:30:18 > 0:30:20I looked so terrible when you first saw me.
0:30:20 > 0:30:26Well, I just think people have to look a little bit different from the "in" people then
0:30:26 > 0:30:29and you looked very different.
0:30:29 > 0:30:34Downstairs they said, "Well, there they all are. It's not a very good bunch, is it?"
0:30:34 > 0:30:38And I said, "What do you mean not a good bunch, there's a star upstairs."
0:30:38 > 0:30:41They said, "Which one?" I said, "Well, Celia Hammond."
0:30:41 > 0:30:45We had a very close relationship. really. I mean, I adored him
0:30:45 > 0:30:47and he was very, very fond of me,
0:30:47 > 0:30:54but it was a bit of a sort of Svengali-type relationship, really.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58How long did it take you to make up when you first started, Celia?
0:30:58 > 0:31:02- About an hour and a half. No, about an hour.- And now it takes you?
0:31:02 > 0:31:04Ten minutes, 15 minutes.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06And it's probably better, is it?
0:31:06 > 0:31:08'He made you do what he wanted'
0:31:08 > 0:31:12and he didn't like you to ever have any ideas of your own.
0:31:12 > 0:31:19If you would sort of try and think for him, he'd say, "Stop doing that!"
0:31:19 > 0:31:22"Stop behaving like a model!"
0:31:22 > 0:31:25He didn't like that, he would always tell you exactly what he wanted.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28Can that leg go a little bit higher, baby, it was better before,
0:31:28 > 0:31:29I don't want to see the whole shoe.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31How old is he in 1960?
0:31:31 > 0:31:37He must be 47, he's becoming a bit of a sort of elder statesman at Vogue
0:31:37 > 0:31:42and when you've still got, you think, many more miles in the clock, you probably don't want to be an
0:31:42 > 0:31:46elder statesman, you want to keep on working, and he jumps ship to Queen.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50And very prescient, I think, because he's able to reinvent himself there.
0:31:52 > 0:31:58Queen was remarkable in that time, it was the avant-garde place to work for,
0:31:58 > 0:32:00it sort of left Vogue behind
0:32:00 > 0:32:07and it lasted not very long, but while it was there it was ground-breaking.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41Queen put me under contract for a year, so I couldn't do anything,
0:32:41 > 0:32:45well, I didn't want to do anything else, actually. I was very happy
0:32:45 > 0:32:49just to do that and I did masses of stuff with Parkinson in that year.
0:32:53 > 0:32:59Parkinson, I mean his photographs in the '60s come alive when he meets Celia.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02Of course she's everything that the 1950s models weren't,
0:33:02 > 0:33:04she wasn't sort of full of austere and unapproachable,
0:33:04 > 0:33:07she was you know, the hair, she can drive a sports car
0:33:07 > 0:33:10and her hair flings back and it must have been very liberating
0:33:10 > 0:33:15for a fashion photographer that started in Bond Street in 1934.
0:33:31 > 0:33:37I was very much in love with her for sort of three or four years
0:33:37 > 0:33:43and I used her like, you know, an artist might.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46I got to the state when I could hardly take a picture without her.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53Do you think you could shake your hair slightly.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58Turn your head this way.
0:33:58 > 0:33:59No, the other way.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03There certainly is a school of English photographers.
0:34:03 > 0:34:08I call them the Black Trinity of Duffy, Donovan and Bailey.
0:34:11 > 0:34:16When my contract ended and I started doing things with Donovan,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19he really didn't like it, he got quite upset and said, you know...
0:34:20 > 0:34:28He just said I'd become a model and, you know, whatever we had,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31you know, this magical thing we had was tarnished and gone.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47I didn't like the fact that he had Porkinson's Bangers and made
0:34:47 > 0:34:50sausages and had a pig farm, I didn't like that!
0:34:53 > 0:34:55Did you know that? Porkinson's Bangers.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:35:06 > 0:35:10This is Gladys, who's our tea lady here at the Television Theatre.
0:35:10 > 0:35:17APPLAUSE
0:35:17 > 0:35:20Why are these different from other bangers, these Porkinson's?
0:35:20 > 0:35:24I'll tell you. Three things, first of all the pork in it
0:35:24 > 0:35:29is the best pork and not the rubbish, old skin and stuff.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33- The second thing is there's a little bit of Tobago in them.- OK.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37And, finally, the skins are real pig.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42Pigs thrive in the Caribbean, you know,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45back to the days of the buccaneers.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48They used to leave pigs on most barren islands,
0:35:48 > 0:35:50so that they could always come in.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53That's right, when they came in for water and to scrape the bottoms,
0:35:53 > 0:35:59they released some pigs so that they knew there would be food there when they came back.
0:35:59 > 0:36:06And having heard about this, I started to release a few pigs round my farm and I found they did thrive.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10And then I started this cooperative and the people who work around,
0:36:10 > 0:36:15come and make the sausages and bacon and so forth and we're now making
0:36:15 > 0:36:21about 600 pounds of the famous Porkinson's - Porkinson, notice - Banger a week.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23Yes, you're really in the banger business.
0:36:31 > 0:36:36He always liked me to experience things in life and opened my eyes to a lot of things.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40A great one was to let me watch these pigs getting slaughtered,
0:36:40 > 0:36:44which was very graphic and horrendous, but I have this
0:36:44 > 0:36:51one memory of him. He always used to put on a big parka coat with a big hood on it
0:36:51 > 0:36:57and he'd come out of the freezer with a horror mask on and decide to terrify me,
0:36:57 > 0:37:01absolutely to my wits end, where I'd be screaming,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04jumped in the pool, trying to swim away from him and he'd chase me around the pool
0:37:04 > 0:37:06in this big horror mask and this big jacket.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10But that was him, he had a huge, you know, amazing sense of humour.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13I was terrified at the time but he found it very funny.
0:37:13 > 0:37:18So looking back on it I find it very funny and it's one of those sort of special moments
0:37:18 > 0:37:20that I used to have with him.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28The decision to come to Tobago wasn't a very difficult one to make.
0:37:28 > 0:37:33I mean, just look around. It's like an English village with shades on.
0:37:33 > 0:37:39And if you're fortunate enough in having a minimal talent with a camera,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42you can work anywhere, you know?
0:37:42 > 0:37:46You can sit here for a while and if you're lucky the cables come.
0:37:46 > 0:37:54A little guy comes on a putt-putt and somebody says, "Get to Tokyo." And it makes a good base here.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59I mean, the world is where I work.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03I might just as well commute from Tobago as I should from Heathrow.
0:38:06 > 0:38:12Could I have a reverse call to Long Island, New York, please?
0:38:12 > 0:38:16I'm speaking from 6393575.
0:38:16 > 0:38:22The number in New York is... 5166761237.
0:38:24 > 0:38:29My number is 6395375.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33Well, I've got to find out if anyone's going to meet me at the airport.
0:38:40 > 0:38:46When we went to the Seychelles we went in on the inaugural flight,
0:38:46 > 0:38:49no planes had landed there before.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54He had heard about this island called Bird Island
0:38:54 > 0:38:56and he was determined to go there.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59Everyone said, "Oh, you know, there's no way of getting there'.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10Bird Island was a very good name for it because there was nothing but birds.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13There were like ten million fairy terns.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Wenda used to come on all our trips.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23After she'd finished modelling,
0:39:23 > 0:39:29she then started writing, she would be the travel writer on all the trips.
0:39:29 > 0:39:34He would feed her for her article and she would feed him for the picture.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43And when we were in the Seychelles, I think that's where I first started
0:39:43 > 0:39:47falling in love with the idea of doing narratives in fashion.
0:39:47 > 0:39:54And we had this idea of, you know, why was this girl in the Seychelles that was kind of hard to get to,
0:39:54 > 0:39:58and she had all these clothes, because I had to show the clothes.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01So we decided that she had been shipwrecked.
0:40:01 > 0:40:07This was the story in our head, and by chance, all she was able to save
0:40:07 > 0:40:10was a huge trunk full of all her clothes.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14So we found this old trunk and we built a raft
0:40:14 > 0:40:17and then we spent three days.
0:40:17 > 0:40:22We wanted to have an island that had one palm tree on it.
0:40:22 > 0:40:28So we literally drove around, round and round and round and round the island
0:40:28 > 0:40:31looking for this island with one palm tree.
0:40:42 > 0:40:43And Wenda found it.
0:40:57 > 0:41:02Parkinson had a sense of big, you know, big spaces,
0:41:02 > 0:41:06he would do pictures where, you know, there would be panoramic views.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14We were the first fashion magazine
0:41:14 > 0:41:20that had been invited to do photographs in Russia, this was in the early '70s.
0:41:23 > 0:41:28Grace Coddington was the stylist. And she is a genius stylist,
0:41:28 > 0:41:30she had such a wonderful eye.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37In Russia, we had to be travelling around with Intourist guides
0:41:37 > 0:41:41and, you know, they were sort of taking our film.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45And Parks was worried that they might not develop the film right,
0:41:45 > 0:41:52so he asked me to sort of stuff some down my pants, you know, which I did.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54And then he said to me afterwards,
0:41:54 > 0:41:58"Actually, the Russians developed the film even better than we did over here
0:41:58 > 0:42:01and we needn't have bothered. SHE LAUGHS
0:42:10 > 0:42:13He always liked what I was doing,
0:42:13 > 0:42:18he just went with everything, you know, he was very open to suggestions.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22And, you know, he was like a young person,
0:42:22 > 0:42:29even though he was quite aged, you know, everything was new discovery for him.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31I was so excited when I was working with him
0:42:31 > 0:42:35that I would go to bed at night thinking, what will I do tomorrow?
0:42:38 > 0:42:44He actually, I think, had the most profound effect on my modelling career,
0:42:44 > 0:42:50and my life, you know, as far as photographs went, in that his photos
0:42:50 > 0:42:58sort of launched me into becoming a big model in England and in America.
0:42:58 > 0:43:04And, actually, I met my fiancee, Brian Ferry, because of those photos.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24There is a great contact
0:43:24 > 0:43:27with a photographer and the girl.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31It's almost like a metronome because the good girls,
0:43:31 > 0:43:34they give you something and even if you don't like it, you take it,
0:43:34 > 0:43:39and then slowly she understands that you know what she's doing.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42You say a couple of words and she will get
0:43:42 > 0:43:44into where you want her to be.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47And then, you know, it rises and falls like a metronome.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50And you know exactly...
0:43:50 > 0:43:55When you start to lift a film strip, you know all the way to that picture
0:43:55 > 0:43:57that you remember focused on the eye.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05When you're working with Parkinson it was that you were posing for him,
0:44:05 > 0:44:07it was not for the magazine or for the public,
0:44:07 > 0:44:09it was really a one-on-one relationship.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16It's very important that you have this magical experience
0:44:16 > 0:44:19that is just between the two of you and nobody else.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24What a flirt he was, he was such a flirt.
0:44:26 > 0:44:28We danced, he likes to move around you,
0:44:28 > 0:44:33so he's not like just standing in front of you when he's taking a picture,
0:44:33 > 0:44:35so you're aware of 360 degrees of your body.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38Beautiful!
0:44:39 > 0:44:43Very few photographers can engage you like that, that's why
0:44:43 > 0:44:47some photographers don't like to work on locations because they find that
0:44:47 > 0:44:53everything else is distracting, but Parkinson was always, the location,
0:44:53 > 0:44:59was the background and the backdrop of the story but it was a relationship,
0:44:59 > 0:45:01what people saw in the eyes.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05So what they see in the girl's eyes through that picture,
0:45:05 > 0:45:08it was actually intended for him personally.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22The house was in the shape of a W,
0:45:22 > 0:45:26obviously my grandmother's name was Wenda, and one of his great
0:45:26 > 0:45:30rituals was sunset. So that around six o'clock every evening,
0:45:30 > 0:45:33no matter what you were doing, where you were, where you'd been that day,
0:45:33 > 0:45:37if you'd just come off the beach or going for a shower or whatever,
0:45:37 > 0:45:42you were summoned and it would be a loud call, "Sunset!"
0:45:42 > 0:45:46And everybody would have to come and sit down and watch the beautiful sunset.
0:45:46 > 0:45:48DESERT ISLAND DISCS THEME MUSIC
0:45:50 > 0:45:54Now let's get onto music, what's the first record you've chosen?
0:45:54 > 0:45:57Well, because of my association with Carnival and with Trinidad,
0:45:57 > 0:46:00where you have a license to be drunk,
0:46:00 > 0:46:02which is part of the joys of life,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06it gets rid of all your inhibitions, here we go, Norman, Is That You?
0:46:11 > 0:46:13# Norman was me good partner
0:46:15 > 0:46:17# To me he was like a brother
0:46:19 > 0:46:22# A jack of all trades, a very good sportsman... #
0:46:24 > 0:46:28I became friends with him as did my husband, Mick.
0:46:28 > 0:46:30And we went to Trinidad
0:46:30 > 0:46:32and we danced at carnival.
0:46:32 > 0:46:37We went on stage and we won, I think it was second place.
0:46:37 > 0:46:43We were Seaweed, and we ended up getting blind drunk.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46Actually, I did find myself lying in a gutter, you know.
0:46:46 > 0:46:52I mean, really! That's never happened to me before or since, only with Parks.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56# Norman, is that you? #
0:46:59 > 0:47:05Parkinson was an amazingly stylish person, his look was unique.
0:47:05 > 0:47:07Was it dandy?
0:47:07 > 0:47:09I don't know, I can't put my finger on it,
0:47:09 > 0:47:16but he used to wear these sort of huge belts slung low around his hip.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19And his choice of fabrics were amazing.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23I mean, he had his clothes made, these were not off the peg.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29There were endless things that he had made in the Caribbean
0:47:29 > 0:47:33or in India or Kashmir or somewhere on his travels.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39He had a little sort of broachy thing
0:47:39 > 0:47:44that he wore instead of a tie for those super-chic occasions.
0:47:44 > 0:47:46He pushed the rules.
0:47:50 > 0:47:57And he had this very elegant little silver box of snuff,
0:47:57 > 0:48:02so he always took a pinch of snuff, all the time.
0:48:10 > 0:48:15Over the 50 years we knew each other, the thing about Parks
0:48:15 > 0:48:18was that he didn't stay in a rut.
0:48:18 > 0:48:23And he decided the amount of travelling he did,
0:48:23 > 0:48:25the way his body was changing,
0:48:25 > 0:48:29as we all do as we age, he went for comfort.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33He developed his own casual style.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39To the point where once we came off a shoot,
0:48:39 > 0:48:42then he was in a pea green,
0:48:42 > 0:48:47terry cloth, short-sleeved, zip-up jumpsuit.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53He had this funny habit of putting himself in his own pictures.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56I mean, he was the ultimate prop and he knew it.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02He enjoyed being recognised. You know, he didn't want to be a nobody.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12"Dear Mr Parkinson, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother,
0:49:12 > 0:49:16"has asked me to write and thank you so much for your Christmas presents.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20"The Queen Mother greatly appreciated your kind and generous thoughts
0:49:20 > 0:49:24"in sending such a magnificent consignment of Porkinson's sausages.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27"Her Majesty will be taking them up to Sandringham
0:49:27 > 0:49:30"and is much looking forward to tasting them.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34"Queen Elizabeth sends you her best wishes for a very Happy New Year."
0:49:38 > 0:49:42I have been very fortunate because that large house at the end of the Mall
0:49:42 > 0:49:48have occasionally beckoned me to go in there and take some snaps, which I've enjoyed.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51And it makes you work very fast
0:49:51 > 0:49:56and it makes you work with a tremendous sort of cunning.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58You know you may only have 20 minutes
0:49:58 > 0:50:01and you've got to get your snaps and get out fast.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08I have enjoyed those very much as a challenge.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14You know you have become, by somebody sticking a pin in you,
0:50:14 > 0:50:16you've become a moment of history.
0:50:16 > 0:50:23August 4th, 1980, a very great day in celebration of a remarkable lady.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26The National Portrait Gallery was doing
0:50:26 > 0:50:30an exhibition in 1980 for the Queen Mother's 80th birthday.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32We heard that Parkinson had got this commission to photograph
0:50:32 > 0:50:35the Queen Mother with her two daughters.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37The Queen Mother was one of his very best friends
0:50:37 > 0:50:42and asked Parkinson to take all her official pictures
0:50:44 > 0:50:48I wanted to think of a picture that would be historic.
0:50:48 > 0:50:53Princess Margaret had fixed up that after church on Sunday,
0:50:53 > 0:50:55the Queen also would be there.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58I know when they turn up after church,
0:50:58 > 0:51:02somebody will be in puce, somebody will be in polka dots and the
0:51:02 > 0:51:08whole trouble with historic pictures is they're killed by the fashion.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11I bought a lot of beautiful blue silk fabric in New York
0:51:11 > 0:51:16and I went to Hardy Amis and I said, "Would Miss Lillian,"
0:51:16 > 0:51:22she's the seamstress, "make me three capes which would button up at the back?"
0:51:23 > 0:51:25It was a wonderful, wonderful picture to see them
0:51:25 > 0:51:27all buttoning themselves up.
0:51:33 > 0:51:38Princess Margaret was a good ally, and the Queen Mother enjoyed it.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42I think the Queen, I think she's all right about it now,
0:51:42 > 0:51:46but I think she felt outnumbered and a little bit embarrassed at the time.
0:51:53 > 0:51:55Norman Parkinson was clever enough,
0:51:55 > 0:51:58adept enough to reinvent himself for every decade.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03In Manhattan in the '80s,
0:52:03 > 0:52:07America rediscovers, not just his ability with the camera,
0:52:07 > 0:52:13but this kind of exotic character who turns our lovely American ladies into Duchesses.
0:52:15 > 0:52:20Town and Country is incredibly glossy.
0:52:20 > 0:52:23Parkinson sees it as a fascinating new departure,
0:52:23 > 0:52:30these people have so much money and here they are in this magazine wanting to show it off.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42Yes, I forgot about all those,
0:52:42 > 0:52:46we did a lot of things with Town and Country.
0:52:46 > 0:52:48We went to amazing houses with people
0:52:48 > 0:52:52who had the most wonderful art collections.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54I remember asking at one house,
0:52:54 > 0:52:57what did these people, how did they get all their money?
0:52:57 > 0:52:59What do they do?!
0:52:59 > 0:53:03And apparently, I think it was their grandfather or great grandfather
0:53:03 > 0:53:06had invented the can opener and patented it.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10That was a good one.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13Parkinson plays his part to perfection,
0:53:13 > 0:53:17this slightly eccentric Englishman, and they love him, of course,
0:53:17 > 0:53:21he becomes as much a star as the people he's photographing.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30I think he took a tack that was about vulgarity
0:53:30 > 0:53:33and I was sort of sad.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37And I can hear him, I can hear him saying, you know, "Bring it on!"
0:53:37 > 0:53:41"Bring it on! More!" Put more trash on and more make-up
0:53:41 > 0:53:45and make your hair bigger, you know.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51I didn't see charm in his pictures in that period.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55And, for me, charm and Parkinson, they're like a marriage.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09The excess of the '80s, I think he described it well.
0:54:09 > 0:54:14I think he described the society he was looking at.
0:54:14 > 0:54:19I don't think he invented it, I think he understood it.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29INAUDIBLE
0:54:34 > 0:54:35INAUDIBLE
0:54:50 > 0:54:52Fashion photographers are journalists.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56We're making our statement about the time,
0:54:56 > 0:54:59even if two people are sitting at a table,
0:54:59 > 0:55:02what's on the table is reflecting what the times are,
0:55:02 > 0:55:04if people are drinking beer,
0:55:04 > 0:55:07it's a different time than people drinking champagne.
0:55:09 > 0:55:16Fashion photographers become the recorders of celebrities of the time and of the clothes of the time.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20And that's what journalists are, they record the times.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40Women have really been the same for thousands of years,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43my job is to point them up for here and now.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51The most I can hope for is to see a woman flick through the pages of a magazine
0:55:51 > 0:55:53and actually stop and turn back
0:55:53 > 0:55:55when something of mine catches her eye.
0:56:07 > 0:56:12One of the things, I think, that kept Parks working was the fact
0:56:12 > 0:56:16that it masked some of the tragedies that were going on in his life.
0:56:18 > 0:56:23Wenda died in 1987. In her sleep, but quite suddenly.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29He lost his life partner and his first muse.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35Four weeks later to the day,
0:56:35 > 0:56:39their house in Tobago went up in flames and suddenly he's bereft.
0:56:46 > 0:56:51And I think he really begins to have a crisis of identity towards the end of his life.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58Ronald Smith had been playing Norman Parkinson for such a long time
0:56:58 > 0:57:05without ever really letting the mask slip. And he says that very telling thing,
0:57:05 > 0:57:09"If I didn't have a passport, I wouldn't know who I was."
0:57:28 > 0:57:32I think a fate worse than death is to end up in Putney Vale
0:57:32 > 0:57:36and since I've got permission from the government of Trinidad and Tobago
0:57:36 > 0:57:39to have my private burial ground,
0:57:39 > 0:57:43there I hope will be the best wake that Tobago's ever known
0:57:43 > 0:57:47with steel bands, a line of tin baths,
0:57:47 > 0:57:50you wear your best suit, boots and all, and you're covered in ice
0:57:50 > 0:57:53and when you want your rum and water,
0:57:53 > 0:57:55you just scoop the ice off the tin tub.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04For me, he's certainly one of the great photographers, really.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07Apart from a very deep love of him,
0:58:07 > 0:58:10I think his pictures are very inspirational.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18I don't know how he captures these extraordinary moments.
0:58:18 > 0:58:23I remember one time I was doing a story on jodhpurs.
0:58:23 > 0:58:30He wanted the girl to pull a little wooden horse on a string with wheels.
0:58:31 > 0:58:35We were just going along and suddenly out of the restaurant
0:58:35 > 0:58:41came this huge fat man. I mean, huge!
0:58:41 > 0:58:48And he took one look at this girl wheeling her horse and he jumped on it.
0:58:50 > 0:58:51And Parkinson caught it,
0:58:51 > 0:58:55you know, he caught all those really funny moments.
0:58:55 > 0:58:57Parkinson loved things that were silly.
0:59:05 > 0:59:08Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd