Amateur Photographer

I’ve loved photography since I was young. I’m now old so I can’t actually remember how young, but pretty young. My first ‘grown up’ camera was a Yashica FX-D which I must have got when I was around 13 or 14. I loved it (still got it!). I couldn’t take that many photos because buying film and getting it developed was expensive for a kid, but I remember going to events with my Dad like the Finningley Air Show (I got really close to the runway when Concorde landed) and the Clumber Park Rally and taking lots of photos. I must get around to scanning them at some point.

Around the same time (mid-80s) I’d buy Amateur Photographer (AP) magazine and gawp at the listings of the cameras I could never afford. I don’t remember seeing any street photography, from what I recall it was all landscapes and female models shots in soft focus. I could be wrong, but that’s my memory. I don’t think I was massively inspired by the photos in AP. At the time all I really wanted to do was take photos like I used to see in my beloved Rad and Thrasher. What might have been if the digital age happened in the glory days of the late 80s skateboarding scene! I think I was 20 years too early…

The reason I’m getting all nostalgic here is because I was featured in a double-page spread in AP magazine the other week. This didn’t come about because I’m any sort of renowned photographer – I actually applied to be featured in the Reader’s Portfolio section 😆 Not that I’m bothered. As a long-time (if very sporadic) reader I was made up to see some of my photos in print, especially in a magazine that has been in print since 1884!

AP kindly sent me a PDF of the article, so I’m sharing it here for posterity. Let me know what you think!