I was recommended to Linda McCartney by Eve Arnold and with Pete Trew a black and white printer, a highly talented and gifted man who I introduced to Linda started working on her archive at the time her 60’s show started to ‘become’. It was all word of mouth, perhaps a simpler time where printed images flowed through London’s photographic veins.
Myself and Pete started working on the exhibition that was to launch her forthcoming book ‘Sixties’. All of her colour work was on 35mm and 2 1/4 transparency, and all the prints I made were cibachromes.
When I went to see her the first time, she was crossed legged on the rug in her and Paul’s apartment in Soho, with a tooth brush in one hand, a small bowl of warm salty water before her, with a filthy, forlorn pigeon with an injured foot held delicately in the other. She was full of love for everything that walked the planet, which fuelled her passion for photography.
I loved working with her as her colour printer, she was always kind and full of life, passionate about her photography and creativity, and loved the perfection of the hand print. Never tiring of exploring the creation of prints from sun prints to analogue, 35mm to 10 x 8..and explored every medium at her disposal from immersing herself in ancient books and her connections. She always carried a camera, and her book was the window to her world through the sixties, intimate images of family and friends, and all the humour she saw and felt all her life.
Her photography spoke volumes of her passion for her family, animals, friends and the world. The fact that she was privileged within the world of the sixties does nothing to belittle her ability as a great documentary photographer and artist.
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