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Out of the Dark

The greatest photographer that I have ever printed for would have to be Norman Parkinson. I met him early in my career at a book signing. As he signed my book, he asked me what I did for a living. I told him I was a black and white printer, where upon he looked up, pointed to someone behind him, and asked me to give him my name and telephone number. The following week he was on my doorstep with a commercial job that he needed printed. His regular printer had gone away on holiday, and Mr. Parkinson knew of no other printers other than me (from the earlier encounter) and he needed these prints urgently. He cameback the folling week with all his negatives. This, he said, was for a book he was doing - a retrospective (50 Years of Fashion Style). But he wanted me to print just a few prints as a "test". I did maybe a dozen 16x20 pictures. To me they looked beautiful. But when he came in to see them he tore them up. Too dark, not enough contrast, no luminosity. So he asked me to do them again. I did. And when he turned up the following week he made a few comments about each, and he said they were better. He did not tear them up, but he wanted me to try another set. I didn't know how to make them any better, so I left them in the box wondering what to do. As it happened Mr. Parkinson turned up unexpectedly a couple days later. Before I could tell him I hadn't had a chance to reprint them he opened up the box of prints he saw earlier in the week and after reviewing them said they were absolutely perfect. I said nothing.

When it became known that Norman Parkinson was using me as his printer everyone else started using me. Cecil Beaton, Terence Donovan, Barry Lategan, Jean Loup Sieff, Terry O'Neill, the National Portrait Gallery, and many more. I don't think this was because I was a great printer, but because Mr. Parkinson was a great photographer. The other photographers must've thought if I was good enough for Norman Parkinson, heck, I was good enough for them.