Snowdrops

I have been walking around with a little smile on my face – last week I was contacted by the editor of the RPS Journal (Royal Photographic Society) to say that they wished to run a feature in the journal about my LRPS panel and my journey to achieve it. Yesterday we had a 35 minute telephonic interview, and the article will be in the March edition of this journal. He explained this was a bit of a bonus as they run 2000 extra copies in March to coincide with the Photography Show in Birmingham where they give away copies to promote the RPS. No longer having a career means I seldom get recognition for any work that I do – yes, plenty of gratitude from my family for the role that I perform therein – but it does give me a little spring in my step to get five minutes of recognition, soon to be forgotten I am sure, but we take these little nuggets when and where we can get them.

The journal is actually the world's oldest photography magazine, and is a worthwhile read, with some very inspiring photographers contributing to it. Unfortunately you can only get it if you are a member of the RPS, but if you are going to the Photography Show do try to pick one up.

So my little smile is nothing compared to the huge grin I imagine Kevin Abosch has right now, he is the photographer who last week sold a picture of a potato for €1 million (£750,000), a record price for a non-commissioned image by the artist. Photographer of the stars, his subjects have been Johnny Depp, Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, Bob Geldof….and now a humble Irish potato. The buyer saw the image hanging on the wall of his shop, and after 2 glasses of wine he said he liked the image and after 2 more glasses of wine he bought it. It must have been a very good wine - perhaps more than 4 glasses of it were consumed! That kind of fame makes history, although I am not quite sure what it does for photography.

Luckily I saw these snowdrops in the sunshine this morning, because as I write this it is dark and raining again.