Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out

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Lindsay

Lindsay

photographed by Colin Crisford

today we went to the memorial service for my friend and one of my first photography mentors, Lindsay Cameron

when i FIRST started out in photography i did some work experience with a jobbing photographer called 'mike davies' who had a studio on great sutton street in London

(years later i worked in great sutton street in click studios after Colin and Lindsay recommended i did)

i cant remember how i got put with mike: maybe through the college N.E.S.C.O.T that i was at?

but in those days there were less photographers and some of them hung out together socially for drinks in Clerkenwell and

for long lunches at vic naylor's wine bar etc...

when people used PUBLIFOTO or METRO (when metro was a powerhouse) to process their c41 and e6

i met these two, cool, young photographers that were partners in life and crime, called 'Cameron Crisford'

they got a studio on Kingsland road (in the same building i would later have an agent working for me in)

Colin drove a cool saab

and they got a flat together in a converted wharf on the thames

they were definitely photographers that made me want to BE a photographer

in the early days, i did some (not particularly helpful to them) assisting for them

i sat their studio for a week or two while they were away

they were kind and generous with their time and equipment

and we stayed in touch since 1988

they kind of took me under their wings: the first photographers to show me any kindness and were a huge support to me when i was starting out

and have always remained supportive of me and my photography endeavours over many years.

typically enough, the last contact i had with Lindsay was a year ago when i texted to say i was heading down a crossrail tunnel to take some pictures in the dark, on a sunny day, but that I was listening to the Sunday's 'reading writing and arithmetic' (which i gave them a CD of as a wedding present way back and which always makes me think of them)

we agreed it had been too long and that we should meet up.

Lindsay said she'd like to come for cake at the new/old house

then typically enough i got busy and distracted and didn't make those arrangements

and a year later Colin called in tears to tell me Lindsay had succumbed to the cancer that she'd been fighting for the last few years.

and those arrangements were left too late to make.

i'm listening to the Sundays now

having managed not to cry at the service in which people remembered how feisty, creative, cheerful and wonderful Lindsay was, i am crying now and the song playing coincidentally is 'here's where the story ends'

i'm not so sad for lindsay: i'm sad for everyone that will miss her

i want us to all live forever

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i didn't really take pictures at the service

apart from a flower arrangement for 'GRANDAD' aka 'ALBERT' that was made in the shape of a gordon's gin bottle

and a black parking bollard with 'FUNERAL' and a cross on it

I was shooting the sunset out my office window when this bird flew through frame tonight

and it seems like the perfect picture for today

happy trails lindsay

we'll miss you x

Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out: December 04, 2019