Paranoia...

After Darlington, I took some pix in Middlesborough. I remember doing a photographic job, years ago, for the Middlesbrough Tourism Unit. The tourism officer had the unenviable task of attracting holidaymakers to a town whose biggest attraction was the Transporter Bridge, and my job was to take photographs for their brochures. All things considered, I thought I’d done a good job. But when the tourism officer reviewed the pix, her brow furrowed. The people looked a bit ugly, she said “They’re Middlesborough people”, I explained. The budget hadn't stretched to bussing in more photogenic people from, say, Harrogate or Ilkley.

Local people had seemed very suspicious of a man with a camera. Today the main concern is whether I’m photographing children (to the point where, if children are about, the lens cap goes on and the camera is slung over my shoulder). But when I photographed Middlesborough market, many moons ago, one guy wanted to know if I’d been hired by his wife to take photographs of him (there was a story there, but I didn’t get to hear it). Other stallholders, equally paranoid, wanted to know if I was working for the social security department, on the lookout for people who were working and claiming benefits (if I was, it looked like I’d found some)…

The sea view from Saltburn...