0:00:02 > 0:00:04TRADITIONAL FIDDLE MUSIC PLAYS
0:00:51 > 0:00:54Photography works in lots of different ways.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56It's like infinite and I'm still exploring all that,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59that's my job, that's what I do.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09I was always on the street taking pictures and kids got to know me.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12They would always be saying, "Take our picture."
0:01:12 > 0:01:15I became known as photie man, because I was the one who took the photies.
0:01:53 > 0:01:54I know this book's going to happen
0:01:54 > 0:01:58and I'd like one more shot to do a sustained amount of work in Ireland.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02Just to photograph solidly, to try and pull loose ends together.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38We're at the farmers' mart in Ballina now,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41which is the biggest town, probably, in Mayo.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50How will I get it to you? If I leave it in the mart?
0:02:50 > 0:02:53You're going to come back in the spring?
0:02:53 > 0:02:55- Yeah.- They'll give it to you, won't they?- Well, God bless you.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Certainly, the older farmers still have one foot in the old ways.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04They're disappearing and their... Whatever the spirit is about them,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08um, I'd like to catch a bit of that.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10In fact, you know, I don't think...
0:03:10 > 0:03:16In a way that wasn't a cliched documentary shot.
0:03:16 > 0:03:21I'm interested, I suppose... There's a fellow now coming through the door,
0:03:21 > 0:03:24who's maybe 75, with a stick.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27He's speaking to some of the other farmers.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31My response would be to get up and take a picture of him.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33Don't be taking a photograph of me!
0:03:33 > 0:03:35So, there you go.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40That's the situation where we are strangers and the guy walks in,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43and says, "Don't take pictures of me."
0:03:43 > 0:03:45That's how it was in the shipyard.
0:03:45 > 0:03:51I ended up going there for maybe nearly two years, one or two days a week.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53No one paid me, really.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55I'd wear the same old clothes, I wouldn't shave,
0:03:55 > 0:03:58I would just blend in and be part of it.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00You'd go back week after week
0:04:00 > 0:04:03and, eventually, you're part of the scene.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06And the way I work is I just do it and get to know people
0:04:06 > 0:04:09and go back over and over again, so that wouldn't happen.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13More importantly, I'll be less self-conscious, because I'd go there
0:04:13 > 0:04:16and this is what I do, I'd bring pictures back and get to know people.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19And, you know, just the eye contact,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22the rapport with people, is always interesting.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25- What nationality are you?- I'm Irish, I was born here.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28- Are you?- I was born near Crossmolina.- You don't speak Irish. - I know.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31- I had an Irish accent...- You speak like you're a Norwegian.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Like a Norwegian, yeah, probably. LAUGHTER
0:04:35 > 0:04:39So I had an Irish accent when I was a boy, for sure.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41I had a Catholic mother and Protestant father
0:04:41 > 0:04:45and we ended up going to England. I always came back every summer for the holidays and took pictures.
0:04:45 > 0:04:50- And now they're going to make a book.- I'm 98.- You're not!- I am 98.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53- And, er... - CAMERA CLICKS
0:04:55 > 0:04:57LAUGHTER Wasn't that fantastic?
0:04:57 > 0:05:01I knew when you went past, he was the right man for you.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03Unbelievable.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21The older I've got, I'd say the more pictures I take
0:05:21 > 0:05:23and the easier it is to do it.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26So when I was stood up there with the auctioneer,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29I know which lens I've got on there.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33All the time, the camera is just down here at my waist or at my chest,
0:05:33 > 0:05:38I'm still taking pictures. If I raise it to my eye, that might change the situation,
0:05:38 > 0:05:43But all those little gestures and stuff that's going on between those guys, I'm interested in that,
0:05:43 > 0:05:48so it could be there in one frame, the way the eye looks up to the auctioneer.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53Those little things. That's a kind of dance thing you're doing.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58I can make 50 pictures around an interesting scene
0:05:58 > 0:06:02and 48 are OK, have interesting things with them,
0:06:02 > 0:06:04but don't live, don't work.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08But one or two may... You know, something else happens.
0:06:17 > 0:06:23I could easily come here every week for years, easily.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27And give something back, as well, in the end, that would be great.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36MUSIC: "That's Entertainment" by The Jam
0:06:40 > 0:06:44Because I didn't drive, I spent a lot of time on buses every day.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46By way of exploring Merseyside, I would take pictures.
0:06:46 > 0:06:52So I began that in 1978 and carried on doing it until I left Merseyside.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56So that's like over 20 years of pictures.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07You couldn't jump off the bus and ask someone's permission,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09so you just had to take it.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13That's all part of the learning process of doing candid pictures.
0:07:15 > 0:07:20You're moving along a very fast, it's fractions of seconds
0:07:20 > 0:07:22and think about it, it's gone.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33I used outdated cine film, because it was very cheap.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35From about 1989, I used all colour.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42I spend my life doing that, that's just normal.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44Sometimes it's two hours, or whatever.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46The journey becomes part of the working process.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49You get off somewhere and you've already been working
0:07:49 > 0:07:53and that momentum carries you through the day.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55And you do the same on the way back.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05Off to Hickson's, the oldest drapery store in Crossmolina.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08I've been going in there for years, taking pictures in there.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12I remember this store when I was a child and coming back
0:08:12 > 0:08:18- and going in here and buying stuff. - Yeah.- Then, when I came back first in 1975...
0:08:18 > 0:08:22- Oh, yes.- ..I met Tom Hickson and he was just such an interesting character.
0:08:22 > 0:08:23Oh, very much, yeah.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27He had all this wonderful... This wonderful shop full of clothes
0:08:27 > 0:08:29that seemed to go back 50 years.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32I couldn't find maybe something that would suit me, be correct.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37He would disappear upstairs and come down with, like, three versions of whatever it was.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40I don't expect anything here, Geraldine, but, over the years,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43I always said - I said to you about Mr Hickson - I'd love to look
0:08:43 > 0:08:47upstairs, where he used to go and bring all this stuff down.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51I'm sure it's just empty up there and you wouldn't want me to look, but I'd love to look up there.
0:08:51 > 0:08:59- It's, um, it's just in very bad condition at the moment.- I'm sure.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02- You know, because I don't use that part.- Is there anything up there?
0:09:02 > 0:09:05I'd just love to see. Can I go and look without a camera?
0:09:05 > 0:09:08- Just leave the camera and have a look?- I suppose you could.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27Now, look at this. This is unbelievable. This is it.
0:09:27 > 0:09:32This is just amazing. This is a piece of art in itself, this one shop.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36Just looking there. Those bunch of shoes over there is incredible.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39In the other rooms... You wouldn't believe what's in the other rooms.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43Everywhere here is just... It's great. It's really good.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Just as exciting as the landscape outside.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03It's amazing to be up here, after all these years.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07I can't believe this.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10It's, er... Everywhere,
0:10:10 > 0:10:15every arrangement, looks like I should be taking a picture of it.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17I'd gladly spend a whole week in here.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25But, for now, I'm kind of making notes.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29I'd worry something might happen and I couldn't get back in here,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32so I would photograph what I can.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34It's just a great place.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41And, in fact, I liked Mr Hickson so much, to come up here
0:10:41 > 0:10:47and see all this stuff is really sad, but, at the same time, I don't know....
0:10:47 > 0:10:49I'm...
0:10:49 > 0:10:54I think it's amazing. I've been to places like this for so many years.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57Someone would emigrate and you'd see this empty house
0:10:57 > 0:11:01in the middle of nowhere, full of all this stuff that no one wanted.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04And I've photographed those kind of places a lot.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27Normally, when I'd work in somewhere like this,
0:11:27 > 0:11:31I would use a medium format or large format professional camera on a tripod,
0:11:31 > 0:11:36so I'd get more detail, more tonal range, all of those kind of things.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42When I met my old friend Martin Parr the first time, he said, um...
0:11:42 > 0:11:45He said he was a documentary photographer
0:11:45 > 0:11:48and if he got a good picture, it was a bonus.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51I said, "Martin, I'm interested in good pictures.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53"If it's a document, it's a bonus."
0:11:55 > 0:11:59This is material to explore the medium with.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06SHE LAUGHS
0:12:06 > 0:12:10I can't believe he's so excited! Really.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13I lived in this one small place called New Brighton,
0:12:13 > 0:12:17across the River Mersey from Liverpool.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22And one of the places I always went to was a market outside of town
0:12:22 > 0:12:26and, because it was out of town, there was no kind of false, you know...
0:12:26 > 0:12:29People would be in there curlers, just really natural.
0:12:29 > 0:12:30I went every Saturday
0:12:30 > 0:12:35and tried to photograph these women, week after week, month after month.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39Catching the women, looking them in the eye, it seemed like a natural connection.
0:12:39 > 0:12:45But... I did openly. I never used to longer lens and hid behind a lamp post.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47It was always a wide-angle lens and I'm really close to them.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51There's a picture called Three Wise Women, which was made
0:12:51 > 0:12:55not at the women's market, but a car-boot sale.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57I'd go there every Sunday morning.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01I had a mate who used to go there to buy stuff
0:13:01 > 0:13:02and we would leave about half past five.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06I'd be on the gates - people came in - to tell them
0:13:06 > 0:13:10I wasn't Trading Standards, I wasn't, you know, DHSS,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13I was just doing this project for myself.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18So they wouldn't be scared and worried when they saw me later.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21- It's a heavy one. - That's a bit better, I think.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42CAMERA CLICK
0:13:47 > 0:13:52For me to take pictures, most of the time, is easy and natural
0:13:52 > 0:13:54and good fun.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57When I'm out working, I'll have the camera on my shoulder, if it's large format,
0:13:57 > 0:13:59or ready in my hand to use.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03Otherwise, if it's in a bag and you take a lens cap off and stuff,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06you think, "That's not interesting, I won't bother."
0:14:06 > 0:14:08The key thing is to just have a go.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11You start and that involves decisions and processes.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14One decision leads to another and, suddenly, you might get a good picture.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18Other people have spoken about how photography is the easiest of art forms.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Maybe that makes it the hardest.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23But it's easy to get a good picture.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27The second roll of film I ever shot was my best-selling picture
0:14:27 > 0:14:28and I still like the picture.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41We're in a little town called Ballycastle on the west of Ireland
0:14:41 > 0:14:43and there's an art centre here.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47This is my little studio and I'm working on this Irish book,
0:14:47 > 0:14:50pictures which go back to the '70s.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53I lived here till I was about three years old, we emigrated
0:14:53 > 0:14:56and came back every summer and I spent most of my holidays here.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00And then it was only when I came back as an art student in '75,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04I suddenly saw the whole place freshly. I began taking pictures.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06Now, 40 years later, unbelievably,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09the whole lot is being made into a book.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12Alongside a book about Wales, North Wales,
0:15:12 > 0:15:16where I lived for ten years, and a book about Liverpool.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20The theme, I thought, was landscape.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22But now I see all this Irish stuff here
0:15:22 > 0:15:24and there are so many people in the pictures.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28Somehow these pictures have ended up being in the book,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32which is pretty amazing to me, because I didn't select them.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34I work with three other editors.
0:15:35 > 0:15:40So this is their selection and these are just really poor quality photocopies,
0:15:40 > 0:15:43work prints of the lay out of the book.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57When I come back to Ireland I'll be shooting videos, as well as taking stills.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59This picture here is from the video.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03My mother never came back to Ireland, only for funerals.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07The reason my mother left Ireland was due to religious intolerance.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09She was Catholic and she married a Protestant.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19And because of that, none of her family ever spoke to her again.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22That's the story, so to have her in the book -
0:16:22 > 0:16:26her eyes and a bit of antitheticity coming across is pretty good,
0:16:26 > 0:16:28but, again, that's too close to me to put in the book.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33But the fact that someone who doesn't know that story has put it in the book, that's great.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39Here's an early picture of my father.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41He loved the land more than anything,
0:16:41 > 0:16:46but, nevertheless, he left the land and moved to England.
0:16:51 > 0:16:58How you put a set of pictures together, to add up to a lot more than the individual pictures,
0:16:58 > 0:17:00is a whole other art form.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04I don't know what happens during that process.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06And that's the best thing,
0:17:06 > 0:17:13finding pictures which you didn't know would work, that do work.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16It also depends how they're presented.
0:17:17 > 0:17:23Looking at this latest version, makes me feel... It's scary.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26This is the final version.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29It makes me think, when we were earlier in Hickson's,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32photographing upstairs there, it was absolutely incredible.
0:17:32 > 0:17:33This is the final edit.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Should I rush home and look at what I've got, because maybe we've got
0:17:36 > 0:17:40something really special that's better than that. I don't know.
0:17:40 > 0:17:45Often in my books, the pictures are there not necessarily a great photo in itself,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48but as a part of a body of work which adds up,
0:17:48 > 0:17:50like different lines of a poem maybe.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54A kind of artistic form where it won't just be a document telling you something,
0:17:54 > 0:18:00it will be a picture that you can look at again and again and interpret in different ways, I hope.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05SHOUTING AND CHEERING
0:18:05 > 0:18:08# Oh the green and red of Mayo
0:18:08 > 0:18:12# I can see it still
0:18:12 > 0:18:15# Its soft and craggy bog lands
0:18:15 > 0:18:17# Its tall majestic hills
0:18:17 > 0:18:20# Where the ocean kisses Ireland
0:18:20 > 0:18:24# And the waves caress its shore
0:18:24 > 0:18:27# Oh, the feeling it came over... #
0:18:27 > 0:18:29This is Mayo, they've reached the final.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33They've often come close, you know, and never won big things.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38They're just crazy about football.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41This kind of situation I've been in so many times.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45I've photographed at Anfield, I'd hang around the streets outside.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48In Liverpool, it was the culture of the city.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52So how could I not? It was a very exciting place to go.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00A bad result today, so... People weren't really expecting it,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03but, you know, it would have been great.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07- BAND:- # The waves caress its shore - CROWD JOIN IN
0:19:07 > 0:19:10# Oh, the feeling that came over me
0:19:10 > 0:19:16# Will stay for ever more For ever more... #
0:19:16 > 0:19:18One more time, here we go!
0:19:19 > 0:19:25# Oh, the green and red of Mayo... #
0:19:25 > 0:19:27Sing it!
0:19:27 > 0:19:31You work out strategies, you know, how to work.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35In all kinds of situations, whether the football, or the Dock Road,
0:19:35 > 0:19:38and you're weighing up, "Have I got a right to take this picture,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41"what would happen if I take this picture?"
0:19:41 > 0:19:45At the same time, you know you've got to take it now, or the moment will be gone.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50I moved to Merseyside in 1978
0:19:50 > 0:19:55and, on the corner, was a nightclub called the Chelsea Reach.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57MUSIC: "Electric Dreams" by The Human League
0:19:58 > 0:20:00And look at all these faces.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03I like faces and all this material, I thought, "Wow,
0:20:03 > 0:20:04"could I can photograph this?"
0:20:04 > 0:20:07I was too shy and scared, you know.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09It was so noisy, people were drunk,
0:20:09 > 0:20:11they'd think you were a pervert and so on.
0:20:14 > 0:20:20# I only knew you for a while I never saw your smile...
0:20:20 > 0:20:24If it was easy, if I was invisible, I wouldn't have those kind of tensions,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27it probably wouldn't be as good, I wouldn't be as involved, maybe.
0:20:29 > 0:20:35I did it really seriously from '84 to '86.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38I say seriously, three nights a week I'd go in there.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42A lot of the people I would see on the street, they were teenagers, or whatever.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44By 1985, they'd be in the club.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47They would know from the streets, that made it easier.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51I knew I wanted to get the emotion and the feeling.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57I was spending my life, my time, looking at them
0:20:57 > 0:21:00and they're looking at each other
0:21:00 > 0:21:02and Looking For Love seemed OK as a title.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Because I've taken pictures for so long,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24I periodically I come across the same people again, later.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27I photographed kids in New Brighton when they were kids
0:21:27 > 0:21:32and I found myself photographing them with their kids, 20 years later.
0:21:35 > 0:21:41I'd always give pictures back to people. It seems only natural.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43If I had things done with the pictures,
0:21:43 > 0:21:45like they ended up in books or exhibitions
0:21:45 > 0:21:49and those people were in the pictures, or people they know,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52it's a good feeling, I think, to show them this.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55Anyway, I ask this girl if I could take a picture of her
0:21:55 > 0:21:57and she was there,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00stood in the middle of the road, the full moon behind her,
0:22:00 > 0:22:03the water still glistening on the road and it was late,
0:22:03 > 0:22:06this kind of time of day. It was a long exposure.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09I hand-held it, like a quarter of a second, it's not absolutely sharp,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11a bit underexposed, but it's a picture.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14So it's in the book.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16I just had the idea, I'm here, we've got the book,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19let's find out if she's still here.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23We'll take another picture if she is. You know, what will she think of it?
0:22:25 > 0:22:30There can't have been that many girls that age around here in '75, can there?
0:22:30 > 0:22:33It doesn't look unlike Ann.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36It's not Ann, Tom, because Ann hadn't short hair.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40- It's not her hair, Tom.- It is. - Ann hasn't short, curly hair.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44I'll just ring Ann.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47- Ann's hair was straight. - It was, she never had a perm.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51- She had it curly in her 20s. - That was in her 20s.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53- Oh, was it?- Yeah, 1975.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55Oh, then it could be Ann.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58- She would have curly hair in her 20s.- Oh, it could be.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03- Ann, did you have curly hair? Did you?- 1975, '76.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07- Frances, Ann is saying that it's her.- But maybe it is, Tom.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10- She can remember. - Maybe it is her.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15So it is her! Oh, that's all right, Tom.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20Can I put you on? Can I put you on to that man, Ann?
0:23:20 > 0:23:22Go on, go on. He's beside me now and he'll be disappointed
0:23:22 > 0:23:25if he doesn't talk to the woman in the picture.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27No, he's not looking for an old girlfriend!
0:23:27 > 0:23:29No, he's married with two kids.
0:23:31 > 0:23:38Congrats for finding her. For finding... There was a full moon in the evening, Ann.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40Yeah. Hold on.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44Hi, hello.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48I've just made pictures all these years and, suddenly,
0:23:48 > 0:23:51lots of things are happening, books are being published.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56Now that's gone in a book, which has gone all over the whole world.
0:23:56 > 0:24:02So any of yours in Dublin? Well, they could come to the opening.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33We are at a graveyard and it's where my mother's father's family,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37my mother's mother's family were buried.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39It's great to come and visit someone here.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43You get a sense of other stuff, you know, because this is it.
0:24:45 > 0:24:52When I came to get this camera, I was always interested in landscapes.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54and panoramic format.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59My favourite photographer in the whole world was this Czech photographer called Josef Sudec.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03He did these wonderful panoramic pictures, as well.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05OK. Doing the work is as adventure.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08An adventure means going somewhere you don't know where you're going,
0:25:08 > 0:25:13particularly why you're going there. What does it mean? You find out when you get there.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17So I deal with this landscape and then how it works as a picture,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20not my meaning I'm imposing on it.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23I used to paint, I used to paint abstractly.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25The process of making pictures affects me,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28just like the process of painting affects me.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31OK. I give up. I'm going to go around the outside.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37Through that process of trying
0:25:37 > 0:25:40and looking and trying and looking, you get closer.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42And something becomes interesting.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44So you take a picture and you think, "Ah, no, that wasn't..."
0:25:44 > 0:25:47You get that involved - decisions, concentration,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50then you go on and try another one.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53And, after a few minutes, half an hour,
0:25:53 > 0:25:55you're forgetting what you're doing, you're just doing it.
0:25:55 > 0:26:01So, on a good day, working seriously, I might shoot ten rolls.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04Um, average day, three or four rolls.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08And, suddenly, it's three hours later and you might have got a picture.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22Over the years, I've never made any money doing this. Photography is really expensive -
0:26:22 > 0:26:24you shoot a lot of film, the film's expensive,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27you pay for them to be processed, you have to make work prints -
0:26:27 > 0:26:30if you don't work commercially.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34My way of working was I taught BTEC photography.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38I did that two days a week and took photographs five days a week
0:26:38 > 0:26:39and my wife worked.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Things were OK, but I never made any serious money.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48In many years, I'd make a loss.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51Partly, it's my own fault, because I never wanted to finish anything,
0:26:51 > 0:26:55I wanted to carry on working on something over and over again,
0:26:55 > 0:26:59kept too many balls up in the air, never completed a project.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06People could tell where you're coming from.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08So, if I did it for free, you know,
0:27:08 > 0:27:13out of kind of love for the situation and the people, that seemed a fair exchange.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16I'm kind of stealing the pictures, in a way, but I'm giving all this stuff back.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20Because it will be there, one day, for those people.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22So that's the way I work.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24I didn't want to be anybody.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40When galleries started representing me
0:27:40 > 0:27:42and I was selling prints, I couldn't believe it.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46And here I am now where, you know, lots of recognition,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50some print sales, shows all over the world.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55And a lot more people are enthusiastic
0:27:55 > 0:27:59and like photography, so it's really good.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05MUSIC: "Over Here Photie Man" by Steve Roberts
0:28:07 > 0:28:11# He didn't treat us with suspicion
0:28:11 > 0:28:14# We didn't knock his camera Out of his hand
0:28:15 > 0:28:19# And from the Chelsea To the Floral Pavilion
0:28:19 > 0:28:22# We'd shout out, "Over here, photie man"
0:28:23 > 0:28:27# He caught us kissing Who we shouldn't
0:28:27 > 0:28:30# Found us dressed up And dancing to Wham
0:28:31 > 0:28:35# And from late evening To the early morning
0:28:35 > 0:28:38# We were life for the photie man. #