Nikkormat FTn – Ilford FP3

Yes, 1974 or thereabouts, I can’t remember the exact date. Taken on a trip to London, I think on my old Nikkormat FTn camera, probably with a Nikkor 105mm f2.5 lens and FP3 film. The negative perished years ago but I found a very damaged and torn 10×8 print a couple of years ago, scanned it, and spent hours restoring it.

One of our friends back in the 1970s was Chief Photographer at the local newspaper (the Wolverhampton Express & Star), and managed to get the photo published for me. I got a series of calls from other newspapers, and it eventually made it into the Daily Telegraph and a couple of other UK dailies via a picture agency.

One day I received a call from the London ‘stringer’ for the Florida-based National Enquirer who was interested in publishing the photo in the US. (Interestingly, his name was Fred Pye, and at the time married to the singer Kathy Kirby…)  I think I got paid $50 (a lot of money then!) for them to use the photo  – its the only photo I’ve ever been paid for… lol