Everybody is young at heart but if you saw a skateboarding pensioner
sporting a hoodie and shorts you could be forgiven for taking a second
glance.
For full story and pictures:
Advertising photographer Gary Salter has spent the last year setting
up these weird and wonderful scenes as part of a personal project.
Be it old folks in the football dressing room or bikers in a knitting
circle Gary’s photographs never fail to make you smile.
“I like to produce images that you can keep going back to and each
time you see something else,” says the Shoreditch-based snapper.
“The most important thing is they make people smile.”
Gary, 46, specialises in people and character photography, using his
imagination and life experience as inspiration for his work.
“Most of my images come from observation and personal experience,” he
says.
“I always carry a camera – it’s kind of like carrying a sketch book
and recording ideas.
“Then I take these moments in life and start to set them up and
produce them.
“The old-folk footballers in a dressing room was probably influenced
by spending my life playing for the wrong team!”
Including a disgruntled female water-polo team and dressing room of
dejected old folk footballers, Gary’s collection is largely sport-
influenced.
However his work will often include some left-field ideas – depicted
a scene that shows knit-loving bikers in the back room of a pub.
“I discovered there was the ‘Knitting and Stitching Show’ that
attracted coach loads of grannies from all over the country,” he says.
“This was a must and it proved to be an observational paradise, full
of eccentric characters comparing needles and techniques.
“One of these groups caught my eye – a bunch of blue rinse grannies
knitting away and amongst them and enthusing with a young man in his
20’s.
“It just seemed funny and this eventually grew in my head to a bunch
of hells angels knitting/ flower arranging in a pub.
“They look kind of scary in the shot and I was a little nervous about
working with them, but they turned out to be a bunch of gentle giants.”
A professional photographer for 17 years Gary’s unusual images are a
long running personal project which began last year.
Working with stylists and set builders Gary’s projects can often take
on a life of their own, however he acknowledges that it is the
charismatic models who make each scene unique.
“The models seem to love what they do,” he says.
“We work closely with a lot of character model agencies and they are
incredibly professional.
“It’s important for us that they enjoy being at the location and or in
the studio.
“My favourite model to work with was skateboarder Don Weatherhead, he
was just such character,
“Don had the perfect look for the skateboard image, an older person
who was game for anything.
“Had to be helped up and down but seemed to love every minute of the
shoot.”
A keen water-polo player as a youngster it is no wonder Gary’s
favourite image is that of a disgruntled female team water-polo team.
“I like the water-polo players, , it has an amount of underlying
humour without being naff,” he says.
“After years of playing at club level, and again on the wrong side, it
was great to get back in the water and be faced with a slightly more
more threatening opposition and know this time it wasn’t going to hurt.
“But the response to the images has been fantastic from both the
professional markets and the amateur websites.
“It’s nice to see people enjoy them.”
Words by Jack Fletcher
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