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published in 1985, and as well as taking the photographs, Brian wrote all the text. Unlike many books of customs before and since, all the information was based on Brian’s person- al experience of the events.
Throughout Brian’s career as a photog-
rapher, his interest has been in people: their living and working lives. At Sainsbury’s, he photographed the people who grew and processed the food, rather than the food itself. He’s photographed people in steel- works, shipyards and prisons, at Pilkington’s Glass and in postal sorting offices. He’s cap- tured Liverpool footballers and taken a
wide variety of portraits, some of which are in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection. Photographing folk singers and customs was an extension of that interest. As Sal says, “He was a people photographer.” By way of contrast, Brian has an extensive col- lection of images of bridges, and many pho- tographs of London.
In the 1980s, Brian edited the magazine of the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies (BAPLA) while Sal became their administrator. In the 1990s, they for- malised their existing library of Brian’s pho- tographs as ‘Collections’ to which they
added the work of other photographers. This was pre-digital, when I remember the house being filled with filing cabinets of prints and transparencies. Now it’s been digitised and Collections once again focuses mainly on Brian’s own photographs. As Brian now says, “For the last few years I have been scanning my own work. There are about 1,000 images of folk singers and 3,000 of customs on our website. It’s been absolutely fascinating, living my life all over again, leaving out the bad bits! It was a ball at the time and I must say it still is.”
collectionspicturelibrary.co.uk F
Above: Singers waiting their turn (and acting as a talented chorus) before making their contributions to the Edinburgh Folk Festival LPs made in the city during the Festival in 1963 (Including Anne Briggs, Sandy Darlington, Robin Hall, Owen Hand, Hamish Imlach, Alex Camp-
bell and Gloria Dallas). Below: left to right – Bob Dylan at the King & Queen, London, December 1962; Sally Oldfield recording for Transat- lantic in 1968 as half of the Sallyangie; Cyril Tawney singing at a con- cert in South London, watched by Alex Campbell, May 1962.
All photos © Brian Shuel/ Collections
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