CONFESSIONS OF AN ADELAIDE FLASHER
CONFESSIONS OF AN ADELAIDE FLASHER
Having been behind the camera for 40 years, I witnessed and photographed many funny, sad, unusual and exciting moments, and with a who's who of so many well known people, I considered there was much material to write a book on my experiences.
This has now been completed under the title CONFESSIONS OF AN ADELAIDE FLASHER.
The book details my very lucky, fairy tale, start in the business, and covers all aspects of the work I did.
For example, for 24 years I took social and general photographs for The Women's Weekly, and in addition supplied photographs to Mode Magazine, Women's Day, The Bulletin, Cleo and Pix.
Doing such assignments I met and photographed The Beatles, Marleen Dietrich, Eartha Kitt, Chubby Checker, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Mel Gibson, James Brolin, Louis Armstrong, Hans Heysen, Margo Fontaine, Rachael Roberts, Joan Chen, Dame Judith Anderson, John Travolta, Roy Orbison, and Johnny O'Keefe, to name a few. All stories relating to these people are told in full.
I detail events of Royal Tours made by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, Princess Anne , and the Duke and Duchess of Kent, the latter couple providing one of the funniest stories in the book.
My work for the film industry also provided some magical and some dramatical moments, all fully described.
Weddings, I photographed nearly 2,000, are supposed to be happy days, but a wedding photographer can prove this is not always the case. Wedding cars failing to arrive, the groomsman collapsing at the altar, arriving at the reception venue to find it all in darkness and no caterers in attendance, having to pass 30 minutes, driving around the block waiting for the minister to arrive, friction between wedding families on this so called special day, forgetting the wedding ring and having to return home to get it, making the service 45 minutes late, such stories being told in length.
Most would have heard the line, it all happened because I was in the right place at the right time. Well that is not always the case. On one occasion being in the wrong place at the right time, gave me one of the biggest magazine scoops for many a day, and great publicity at the same time.
There is an old saying that one will always make money if they are in the matched (weddings), hatched (births) and dispatched (deaths) business. Well I certainly covered the three, and tell of many interesting assignments in child and adult portrait photography, and some very descriptive accounts of Italian funerals, done under sufferance, as a favour for the funeral director, a personal friend, when his usual photographer was ill.
Many photographs, due to circumstances, had to be faked, so it was a case of what's not known, never hurt anyone. To get results I had to rely on the public many times, and they never let me down. My story of the Bee-Line bus is one great example of what some will do to assist.
Fashion photography, while exciting, and the type of photography which gave me the greatest satisfaction, can at times prove embarrassing and funny. You will read many stories relating to this aspect of my career.
Yes, in case you are wondering, I did take several nude photographs, for artists, private persons wishing to give the portrait to their partner as a gift.
What is outlined above is just a brief summary of a small amount of the book. It would take too long to index all the chapters. If you were one of the tens of thousands of people I photographed during my 40 years, either as a bride, someone at a social function, a model, one of those people who provided "extras" for photographs, some of the stories could be about you.
.
The book,containing over 300 photographs, went on sale in April 2007
CLICK TO E-MAIL