I spent my teenage years in the South West of Surrey, pretty much equidistant between London and Brighton, and it was always one of those two places that called my friends and I when we needed a touch of metropolitan sophistication, or of course to strengthen our wardrobes. In my early twenties, London won and I moved there, the bright lights of the Big Smoke pulling me away from my leafy childhood home.
Brighton, however, always felt like a magical place. I visited often. My younger brother, a musician, moved there, and as many a musician does ended up working a side hustle. In his case, the cook in Hotel Pelirocco. I’d been an early 1980s mod revivalist, and of course with thoughts of Quadrophenia in mind, Brighton always felt like a pilgrimage.
Scroll forward almost 40 years and I’m now living in rural South Wales, dividing my work life between the NHS and as a photographer. Having not visited Brighton in almost twenty years, my partner and I decided to take a city break, staying in an AirBnB off Marine Parade, and catching up with one of my old London friends who has long since made the city his home. After a very pleasant meal my partner and I were strolling through The Lanes as the last light was fading, when I spotted a very dapper man in double-breasted cream linen suit, correspondent shoes, a wide brimmed hat at a rakish angle, and standout silver jewellery. I had a 1959 Leica M3 camera slung around my neck, and two frames left on a roll of black and white film. I had to photograph this man, although with the light quickly diminishing, it was touch and go whether any frame would be useable.
In 2017 when I turned 50, I started shooting a project called 50 Plus… The generation that didn’t have to grow up. It examines my generation of men and explores the freedoms that we have which weren’t available to our fathers’ generation. We are at liberty to cling on to our teenage subcultures and styles well into and beyond middle age. Always obsessed with clothes and music, I still consider myself a modernist. Since my initial re-visit to Brighton I’ve been back a handful of times. In 2023 I photographed the Mod Weekender for Detail Magazine, and as a result came away with a yearning to buy a scooter again, which I did, and it’s been ridden to Brighton a couple of times since. In many ways the photographic project was autobiographical. I have the luxury of holding down professional jobs whilst also indulging my inner teenage rebel.
50 Plus… grew and grew, and on my 58th birthday in June, it was released by specialist documentary photography publisher Fistful of Books. I start the book with these words:
“As growing old is a privilege, so too is it a privilege of youth to rebel against the elder generation. Unlike when we were young, however, how do you shock the generation who have spent their lives rebelling? I’ve often said to my boys that the only way they could shock me is by playing golf and voting Conservative. Thankfully, as far as I’m aware, neither has experimented with such depravity!…
In the woods behind my house were the rusting remains of a Morris Oxford, and minus its wheels, the monocoque body of a long-trashed Vespa scooter. I used to sit on said scooter, and imagine I was riding to Brighton with my school’s equivalent of Jimmy the Mod’s on/off girlfriend Steph on the pillion. It’s safe to say, I wasn’t the Ace Face!”
50 Plus… is a hardback containing 84 portraits, over 156 pages. There is an essay by myself, a preface by an ex-pat British journalist now living and working in California, who published some of the photos in a magazine in 2022, and although the vast majority of portraits are anonymous, twelve of the men have been kind enough to write a testimony about themselves.
Fortunately the two shots of the dapper gent in The Lanes worked out, and he is one of those who kindly agreed to contribute. If you’re asking yourself why you are reading this in The West Hill Whistler, and you’ve not yet worked it out, that man was Jed Novick, editor of the title, and we’ve since become friends. Last time we met up we enjoyed a good Mexican meal and Margueritas on an early summer evening. Jed and Mike Baller who I photographed on a subsequent visit to Brighton are pictured here.
The book is available from the publisher Fistful of Books, or I have some copies for sale at £30 plus postage. Contact me through my website
The Whistler 