Late November and early December are always particularly busy for us at Michael Turner Photography, and last week was no exception - last minute Christmas portrait shoots and viewing sessions take up most of the time, as well as taking care of printing and liasing with our framers to ensure that our clients all get their portraits in time for Christmas. I'm not sure how I managed it, but I also managed to see three Manchester City home matches in eight days, which got better as the week progressed - a disappointing draw against Hull, an exciting 3-0 victory over Arsenal to progress to the last four of the Carling Cup and a sensational victory over Premiership leaders Chelsea that well and truly brought the house down.
Yesterday Janet and I went see our God-daughter Sarah who, in spite of a few scares and a couple of unscheduled extra operations, I'm happy to report is progressing well. She has been in and out of Alder Hey several times over the past few weeks, but is home now and ever so slowly putting on the weight she needs for her life-saving heart surgery to be properly effective (something to do with growing into a tiny band that was fitted to regulate the flow of blood between her heart and lungs apparently). Yesterday she gave us some beautiful big smiles so she must be feeling OK!
On Friday evening we went to see a slide show and talk by Denis Thorpe, one of the photographers who influenced my early career when I started out in magazine and newspaper photography. Denis spent most of his career as the staff photographer on The Guardian and his instinctive black and white photography from the past 50 years or so is quite simply stunning. Covering all subjects from landscapes and portraits to hard news, he was given the freedom to cover every story in his own quiet style. Sadly, as Denis himself will acknowledge, that simply doesn't happen in today's cut-throat world of newspaper photography that seems to be dominated by the paparazzi.
Denis's ability to come back from any assignment with photographs that capture the essence of a story in one or two telling images made him popular with his editors and hugely respected by his fellow photographers. I had never met Denis before Friday. He certainly lived up to his reputation as one of the gentlemen of the press, and his passion for people and photography shone through even though he's been retired for a good number of years now. If you like black and white documentary and pictorial photography I can recommend his book 'On Home Ground', or if you get the opportunity to attend one of his talks, even better.
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