I studied photography at the London College of Printing in the 1960s , while there I documented the Aberfan disaster in South Wales where 116 children and 28 adults were tragically killed when a slagheap collapsed destroying their school. It was a truly heart breaking experience. An exhibition of my pictures was mounted at the college.
On leaving college I worked as a freelance photo -journalist in partnership with writer Farrukh Dhondy. We covered many stories including the band ‘The Pink Floyd’. I shot them close up in my studio ( at that stage my bedroom ) using a tripod and their gig lighting which enabled me get close ups which would not have been possible at their gigs. This meant that I was able to make very high quality prints which no one else was able to do. These early shots have become hugely popular and have been featured in many exhibitions about their work. Subsequently I photographed the Floyd at Abbey Road Studios as they completed their first album “Piper at the gates of Dawn “ as well as other gigs around London. My pictures were included in the recent V and A exhibition of Pink Floyd ” Their Mortal Remains “
Other stories we covered: –
“Maharishi and the Beatles “ including Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull before they all went up to North Wales for a ‘preach’ in with the Yogi – thus launching Transcendental Meditation.
“The Dialectics of Liberation ‘ a conference at the Roundhouse with Stokely Carmichael, ( the black power leader following the death of Malcolm X ) Allen Ginsberg the beat poet and R D Laing, the Scottish Psychiatrist.
One of the most challenging stories which Farrukh and I covered was ‘Undergraduate Strain and Breakdown’ at the Cambridge University . This was prompted by the fact that out of 6 undergraduate friends, 2 had breakdowns and one sadly committed suicide.
For many years I worked as a studio advertising photographer later specialising in editorial Food and Still Life working for magazines including the Sunday Times, the Observer, The Daily Telegraph colour magazine, Elle, Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Journal. A la Carte and Interiors.
I worked with many chefs including Keith Floyd, Marco Pierre White, Nigel Slater and Antonio Carluccio and my cookery book photographic credits include Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Waitrose.
I have also worked for many publishers. Photographing authors including Christy Brown, writer of ‘My left foot ‘, Melvyn Bragg, Alan Sillitoe, John Banville and Celia Dale, the crime writer.
In a long career I documented all of artist Bobby Baker’s performances, and many other visual artists work including Damien Hirst, Donald Judd and Sydney Nolan, as well as working for White Cube, The Lisson gallery, the Royal Academy, the Craft Council and other London galleries.
From 2000 onwards I was visiting lecturer at the London College of Printing where I trained ; the City Lit in Covent Garden, and many other colleges in and around London; also running my own courses from my London studio.
Since leaving London I have been enjoying developing my landscape photography both here in the UK and in France, where for a few years, together with my wife Fawzia we ran Landscape Photography Holidays from our house in the Corbiere region of SW France. It was hard work, but great fun and lovely meeting a diverse group of keen photographers. I have always enjoyed (and still do) sharing my knowledge of all things photographic accrued from many years working in this very varied field that has been my life time’s work.
I received a Gold Award from the Association of Photographers for my Still Life work in 1985
Currently I am preparing for a forth coming exhibition which will be entitled ‘A Life in Wide Angle’ which will show the many genres of photography I have worked in.
Prints
Prints are available in limited editions of 50 on archival museum quality paper
Please contact me for further information.
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The Copyright of all images on this site is owned by Andrew Whittuck and images may not be copied or reproduced without his written permission.