Follow Jezblog:
Matt has been sorting through crates of tear sheets........ old magazines and papers featuring pictures I have made.......... and finding the odd crazy one in which I am actually in the picture.
When I was at college I rolled down to photograph life on a travelers encampment ........ on the edge of a trash tip...... a rubbish landfill site in Kent...........
That day I had the first of hundreds maybe thousands of conversations I've had with cops and security types and soldiers saying 'you can't go down there it's to dangerous' ........ cops told me I would be robbed for sure if i went on to this gypsy site........ they were sitting in their cars watching from a distance and stopped me as went to enter....... they wanted to know what I had in the bag...... obviously initially they thought i lived at the site and had stolen the cameras...... then when they understood I was an photographic student they thought I was crazy....... and that I would be stabbed and robbed ........ blah blah........ I said I would take my chances......... they said that I should not come crying to them when the inevitable happened.......... as it was way to dangerous for them to come in after me............. :-/
In the end I managed to get on fine with most of the people on the site some invited me into their caravans ......... Mind you I did have a few problems with a couple of the seriously heavy dogs.............
When I was photographing in one of the caravans one guy wanted to take a picture of me ......... so I set up the camera for him........ and this is the picture he shot........ :-)
So thats me in the hat (holding a Nikon FM with and MD11 drive).......... back in my college days........ hehehe.............
I told Report/IFL the photo agency I had a relationship with up in London at the time......... that I had made these pictures........... because there was controversy about travelers and their sites at the time......... Report asked me to send them the negatives so they could make some prints............ which I did..........
But half the guys at the agency did not know what I looked like at the time cos I was a rookie ........... so amongst the images they sent out was the picture of me......... hehehe.......... it appeared in The Guardian....... and the BMJ........ British Medical Journal......... as you see here :-))
It was pretty embarrassing.......... :-/ :-) :-))............ I had no idea until today we still had a copy ........... Matt just pinged it to having just found it and laughed till he was rolling on the floor........... hehehehehe.................
Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
www.jezblog.com
Comment: Name: Website: Email (not visible to others) remember me
More+
.... The photography and slightly mad life of reportage artist Jez Coulson ....