Family life

Snapshot … Chris Winterflood, front right, with his grandad and brothers Peter, left, and John in 1955.

Snapshot: Shrimping in Norfolk with Grandad

My father, who died in 2005 aged 82, was a serious amateur photographer. He did his own developing and printing and enlarged his best photos using equipment he had made himself with a coffee can and instructions from Amateur Photographer.
Since his death, I have rediscovered many of the photographs he took (the best in black and white) and it is like having him back, although of course he is not in the pictures. Although, in a way he is, as I can feel him just outside the frame as he releases the shutter of his Voigtländer twin lens reflex camera and captures the moment.
This was taken on Happisburgh beach on the east Norfolk coast in the summer of 1955. Happisburgh has been in the news in recent years because the cliffs are being badly eroded and properties are falling into the sea, but at this time even the massive wooden sea defences of the late 1950s were not yet in place.
My brothers and I had been shrimping and this picture shows us inspecting the catch with my grandad, Will (my mum's father). Peter is on the left, John is holding the net.

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Small wonders: The tiny pencil portraits made to mimic Victorian-era photographs

Artist Paul Chiappe, 27, spends up to two months at a time sketching the miniature portraits, some as small as 2mm, simply using a pencil.

They may look like old Victorian photographs that have been stored away for years collecting dust, but these are in fact images made to look like photos but that have actually been drawn with a pencil.
Artist Paul Chiappe, 27, spends up to two months at a time sketching the miniature portraits, some as small as 2mm, simply using a pencil. 
He creates 'old-fashioned photos' in such stunning detail that you'll need a magnifying glass to appreciate his fine draughtsmanship. 

Paul gets his inspiration from old pictures: 'I find it particularly interesting looking at people in old photographs and appreciating the differences and similarities, across different periods, cultures and personalities'

His drawings are produced on a miniature scale using mainly pencil but others are done using paint which is then airbrushed.


Paul continued: ‘The scale stems from an interest in miniatures, where there is an intimacy forged between the viewer and drawing.


‘I also like working on a small scale for technical reasons - it makes sense for me to produce small work because it wouldn't be practical to produce large works with the same level of detail.


‘Often people don't realise when looking at my drawings on a computer screen that sometimes the faces in the drawings are in fact as small as 2mm.


‘I am constantly experimenting with other mediums and surfaces. I have drawn with pencil since primary school.

‘I remember even in primary school meticulously copying images for art class.

'I would end up drawing dolphins and things from wildlife books.


‘Basically, anything I would draw I'd make sure it was as realistic as possible.


‘I feel comfortable using this medium and enjoy the control pencil affords me.


‘I also like the fact that complex images can be produced using such a rudimentary medium.


‘I've always done quite realistic drawings.’

His work has been exhibited internationally as well as in London.


His work is due to be featured at two forthcoming shows at Mader 139 in London and John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Wisconsin in 2012.


The full-time artist studied at Edinburgh College of Art and won a number of awards during his time there.


They included the college's centenary prize for the best work by a graduating student.


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Boy George: when we were heroes

Claire Thom, Philip Sallon and Boy George in 1980 on a coach trip to Margate

I don't know who said it but someone wise once warned that, "You should have a healthy respect for the past but never wallow in it." One of the worst things you can do is live your life in retrospect, but there is a kind of magic to old pictures. Graham Smith's brilliant photos, most of which I have never seen before, recall a time of great adventure and naivety. We thought we knew it all and could change the world with a lick of eyeliner and a dash of rouge.
Of the new romantic moment I have always said, "It was all Bowie's fault", but factor in Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Marc Bolan, Quentin Crisp, Sally Bowles, and a whole daisychain of others who made us dream of a magical world without rules where there really was a wizard behind the curtain.
The 70s were the best time ever to be a teenager. It was the decade that had it all: glam rock, punk, ska, reggae, northern soul, disco, electronica. Pop stars, rock stars, were mythical creatures with lives we could only dream of living, but we tried, oh how we tried. It was punk that finally demystified the rock'n'roll dream, but those of us who loved Bowie could not get him out of our veins. I was just 12 years old when I first saw him as Ziggy Stardust at Lewisham Odeon, and only 15 when I met Philip Sallon; both encounters were to have a profound effect on me.
Through Bowie and Sallon I discovered I was not alone, that there were others like me. Philip took me to my first exciting nightclubs, where I would swoon over anyone I'd seen in a magazine or even a fanzine. He would lecture me, "Clothes don't make people interesting, dear. Trust me, most of these fuckers have pea brains." You could say much of my life has been held together by Philipisms.
Neither punk nor new romanticism were strictly urban affairs. The woodwork squeaked and out came the freaks from all corners of the country. Steve Strange was the Welsh Caligula who lorded it on the door of The Blitz. Rusty Egan was the nice cop of the duo who kept the dancefloor full with his quirky tunes. I still remember the times when Steve barred me from the club, thus driving a nail through my existence. Or when I worked briefly as a coat-check girl and robbed handbags while necking with punk heart-throb Kirk Brandon. It makes sense that many of us went on to achieve global success with music, millinery, fashion and photography. We were young, full of our own self-importance, getting far more attention than we deserved, and far less than we wanted.

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