Henry Metcalfe

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Notes on Copyright

All my images and text are Copyright, all rights reserved. The photos have been reduced to a maximum of 800pix (mostly less) and would only produce a print of around 2" x 4" of acceptable quality. If you would like a full-size (2-3000+ pix) download, please contact me with details of intended use. Free permission is usually given for none-commercial purposes, but a credit and a link would be appreciated.

My early interest in photography started in 1952, when I was eight years old. Dad showed me how to develop rolls of "120" and "620" film with three pudding basins and the "seasaw" technique, which involved holding the film above the pudding basin on the left of the kitchen sink (filled with developing solution) and seesawing my arms up and down for around 10 minutes (ache). It had all the excitement of Halloween - in the dark, with mam clucking and tutting because she wasn't allowed into the kitchen, until the film strip was fixed in the 'Hypo' basin to the right. That experience started my life-long interest in photography.

I had little money when I went to college and my camera equipment was cheap, but I was fortunate enough to be given three book commissions as illustrator and I was also asked to produce postcards for the Yorkshire Dales underground cave formations at Ingleborough Cavern ~ they are still being sold there, over forty years later :)

I gave up photography when my theatre work grew - I loved taking shots and darkroom work, but the theatre involved a lot of travelling and the thought of touring with a portable darkroom was just too much - Impossible without a great financial outlay, which I didn't have. (and the nightmare vision of the landlady hammering on the bathroom door in some distress, leaving me to choose either eviction or the ruin of my latest reel of 35mm masterpieces. It was all too much to bear).

I began writing five years ago and I needed photographs as illustrations..... :)

henry