I have done, commercially, the usual weddings, funerals, parties festivals and musical events. Most are to a simple formula, for weddings we used to work to a three roll of film script, 36 negatives to give the client an album of 25 to 30 photos.

I have most of these negatives buried in my files under “boring”. A few were fun jobs, I worked for various advertising agencies in London, McCann Erickson employed me to document a welcome party for their new CEO in his home in Hampstead – it was a lot of fun and they were happy, I lost these negatives (along with a lot of work)  in a fire in my studio. I also did work at London Galleries for exhibitions.

One exhibit was of Julia Pirotte. Julia was a young photographer taking tourist snaps in the South of France during the second World War – she was also in the French resistance and was once arrested by the Gestapo. I met this charming person, she only allowed me to photograph her at the Photographers Gallery in London if she did not look direct into the camera – it is one of my treasured memories.

With my contacts in North Africa, I was asked to photograph the Algerian singer Warda Al-Jazairia when she appeared at the Albert Hall in London – it was sold out and I had to work on the stage and then to photograph her with dozens and dozens of her individual admirers and then to deliver the prints a few hours later – easy now with digital, a nightmare in London at midnight  – I employed a small team to courier the work as I finished each roll of film and bring to prints back – all the negatives apart from a personal B&W negative were lost – apart from one print she signed and gave me (with a kiss) she was a beautiful dynamo of a person.

I try to use photography to bring pleasure, but I also believe it can work to bring new ideas and to help people understand themselves.

Several ideas I have tried to work on are mentioned in these notes and one project I have worked on it to bring an understanding of our relationship with other species.

I did a photo project in an abattoir. I tried to empty my mind of preconceptions and prejudices and simply to document what I saw as I saw it with a camera. I doubt I would be allowed in any abattoir today, but I knew the people and observed.

I saw fear and pain in the eyes of all the cows sheep and pigs as they were killed.

The casual indifference of the workers was hard for me to understand as I looked through all the contact sheets later.

The series was published and I hope it made some people think.