Meeting a hero

Most of the day was fairly ordinary with a trip to Hexham for a haircut. (Only 5 weeks to Christmas, so should the next cut be before or after?)

This evening, Ian Macdonald, photographer, spoke at the Hexham Photography group meeting. I attended a night class he taught in the mid 80s in a small town called Loftus.  I had to stop during the second term because my nights on call were irregular and I kept missing classes, but I was greatly inspired by Ian to take more photographs from then on.

Tonight he took us through his life story and showed images from different times and different projects. I was hanging on every word and enjoyed seeing so many images I had seen in the past. His story is a fascinating one and his prints are of a very high quality. You can't tell from the projected or online images.

He kindly signed a book of his I bought in 1989 and then agreed to pose for a photograph with one of the images from his Greatham Creek series. We were doing serious (see extra) but someone cracked a joke and I just love the way he reacted.

Rob, one of my photo club mates was there. He paid me a high compliment by saying that he can see Ian's influence in my current work. High praise indeed,  thank you Rob.