Cheap Framed Photographs
Cheap framed photographs, weekly interest free payments and access to lots of people, especially children, were the main reasons the door-to-door portrait company I worked for targeted council estates in densely populated parts of London and its satellite towns. A sales team visited various estates in a particular area to arrange 3 shoots an hour between 2 and 8pm, the time when children were home from school and before they went to bed.
From ‘Here Be Dragons’ By Jason Wilde
On the morning after the appointments were made I collected that day's shoot list and new rolls of film from the company head office before driving to the area to start work. The first door knock at 2pm was the starter gun for the mayhem that followed. In the twenty minutes allotted for each take I had to find the right house and introduce myself to be invited inside - occasionally I was refused entry because people had time to rethink the hard sell that caught them off guard the day before.
The main criteria for a suitable space to shoot the portraits was a white ceiling to bounce a flash gun. Most of the time the living room was used but every now and then I set up in a kitchen, bathroom or bedroom, which surprised and embarrassed a few people as their efforts to clean up for my visit went into the living room. With the room sorted one of two 6ft x 9ft fold-up backdrops, pink for girls blue for boys, was unfolded and placed against a wall or bookcase. Unfolding the unwieldy backdrop was also an opportunity to try to amuse the children who were wary of me.
From ‘Here Be Dragons’ By Jason Wilde
The next step was to cover a suitable piece of small furniture in a sheepskin rug for the sitters to lean on. Along with the John Lewis sheepskin rug and the two Lastolite 6ft x 9ft collapsible backgrounds, the company supplied me with a Bronica medium format roll-film camera, a Metz 45 TTL swivel & bounce hammerhead flash-gun, three spare film backs, spares boxes of Kodak Portra 400 colour film, five battery packs for the flash and a crap car.
If only one person was having their portrait taken a little prayer of ‘thank fuck’ was said and the portraits were made before a quick pack up and a mad rush to find the next house. More often than not a take would involve all members of a family from small groups of 3 to large groups of 10+. The average take was 3 people and on a daily basis I photographed about 40 - 50 people.
From ‘Here Be Dragons’ By Jason Wilde
When it came to photographing a group I’d start with the highest ranking female, mum or nan, and then swap people in and out depending on who the client wanted photographed together. So with a family of 7 a take could be nanny, then nanny and grandad, then nanny, grandad and mummy, then nanny, grandad, mummy and daddy, then mummy with nanny, then mummy with grandad, , then mummy with daddy, then daddy with nanny, then daddy with grandad, then daddy with nanny and grandad, then nanny, grandad with the children, then mummy and daddy with the children, then a group shot of the children, then a group shot of everyone, then individual portraits of everyone. Every now and then during that madness someone would throw me a purler in the form of a fluffy family dog who had no decorum or any idea how to pose or smile for the camera man.
From ‘Here Be Dragons’ By Jason Wilde
Sometimes the job drove me up the pictures but I’ve never had so much fun earning a living. I had the pleasure of photographing fresh born babies wearing ancestral gold around their wrists and necks. African immigrants dressed up in their traditional clothes sternly refused to smile. Indian immigrants dressed in their traditional clothes would not stop smiling. Some men tried to intimidate me with their pets that included thin slippery snakes, beady-eyed lizards and long-legged hairy black spiders. Ladies did intimidate me by posing topless. In front of the camera, cats and dogs were treated like humans. Young girls and boys made it easy and smiled on demand while others told me to fuck off. Families laughed and fought, couples kissed and fought, parents shouted contradictory instructions at anyone around them. I was punched and kicked and the odd occasion I had to down tools to break up a fight. On an even odder occasion I was offered sex by a drunk woman who wanted a roll-around on my sheepskin rug in front of her gas fire.
From ‘Here Be Dragons’ By Jason Wilde