‘I’ve always loved water and the sea’: Photographer Neil Holmes on life behind the lens
SHIP AHOY! The launch of Hoo Dolphin on the River Hull on June 22, 1986 – one of the favourite images captured by award-winning Hull photographer Neil Holmes
Chewing the Fat – out to lunch with Phil Ascough
This week’s guest: Neil Holmes
“It started with a broken arm,” said Neil Holmes, before going on to explain how the day the award-winning snapper snapped his own humerus drove him to consider, and then commit to, early retirement.
With a client who specialises in advising on accessibility, Neil is well aware that you can take photographs with one arm. He just chose not to, not even temporarily.
There is more to it. Neil initially went to see the doctor last September about a blocked ear. The doc threw in a well-man’s check-up, which brought a diagnosis for type 2 diabetes.
“I put a plan into action with lots more exercise and improving my diet,” Neil revealed.
‘I’VE SPENT HOURS ON FREEZING DOCKS AND I’VE LOVED IT’: Neil Holmes
“I very rarely miss a day of walking. Usually a minimum of three miles and at this time of year six or seven. So far I have lost four stones.
“But I went out on January 11th to walk across the Humber Bridge and into Barton. I slipped on the icy pavement and broke my left arm, the funny bone – but it wasn’t! I had to have it plated and screwed. It’s my writing arm.”
Faced with a long lay-off, Neil decided to bring the shutter down on a career dating back more than 40 years. He’s laid back about it, as he is about most things. As most photographers are about most things, and I’ve worked with a few.
Even in the cut-throat world of hard news, daily papers and TV ratings wars it was generally only the reporters and editors who were fiercely competitive. Photographers and camera crews were a different breed, with a camera-derie (see what I did there?) which maybe came from the knowledge that one day they might have to request help from a fellow gentleman illustrator whenever the flash didn’t work, the Queen was facing the wrong way or there really was no film in the camera.
But Neil didn’t take the hard-nosed media route. He’s always done commercial work and “weddings under duress”. Maybe some of them, but ex-Hull City player and future England coach Steve McClaren’s is a special memory.
We talked about the countless PR jobs we’ve covered together and, in the finest traditions of long Friday lunches, we digressed a fair bit.
We met in the Dram Shop, one of my favourite pubs and as convenient as you can get for Tanyalak, Neil’s choice of restaurant.
I can’t remember how long Tanyalak has been there but it’s been a regular venue for our supper club since 2019. What’s not to like about busy, bubbly Thai people cooking authentic Thai food at prices to Thai-smile about? It’s still off the radar for many people but that will change, although sadly down to the closure of Thai House, another of our preferred dining destinations.
MAJESTIC: Historic trawler Arctic Corsair on her way for refurbishment, October 6, 2021
Neil should get a front of house job. Meet and greet, and serving snippets from history. He remembered that Tanyalak is on the site of the old Dorchester Cinema which was knocked down in 1986. He also declared a personal interest – Neil’s dada, John Holmes, used to be the projectionist at the Dorchester and other picture houses.
A quick summary of childhood. Neil was born in Beverley “and spent six hours there”. He grew up in Bilton and moved to Hornsea in 1970. Left Hornsea school in 1979 and wanted to study photography. The only place he could do that was Leeds College of Technology so he went there, got his City & Guilds Advanced and then started his first job with Richmond & Rigg in South Church Side. The first recruit in a new business. It was January 31,1983, they were a new company and he was the very first member of staff.
Not many are likely to remember it as the day it became compulsory to wear seat belts in cars, but Neil does. He also brought back memories of the advertising sheets published by Hull-based electrical goods retailer Comet to promote their fridge freezers, microwaves and whatever. Early components of Neil’s blossoming portfolio.
A move to work for Herbert Ballard gave Neil the opportunity to indulge his love of the shipping industry. We both have fond memories of John Davis – the ultimate maritime PR guru and the professional equal of the most authoritative shipping correspondents, Peter Reekie at the Yorkshire Post and Bob Wellings at the Hull Daily Mail.
“John was a great mentor for me, especially when I started my own business,” Neil recalled.
STREET THEATRE: The Van Man at Freedom Festival, September 9, 2012
With Herbert, the volume of maritime work was the big attraction. Clients included British Transport Docks Board, which evolved into ABP, Dunstan shipyard in Hessle, Yorkshire Dry Dock, which is now North End Shipyard, Whitaker Tankers, the Humber Pilots. Add to that United Towing and their trio of tugs – Salvageman, Yorkshireman and Irishman – which had joined the Falklands Task Force in 1982.
Neil recalled: “I spent many an hour on the freezing docks. Loads and loads of maritime work and I absolutely loved doing it. One of the biggest jobs was for Marr Group converting trawlers for seismic survey.”
As Herbert headed towards retirement he made Neil redundant but gave him freelance commissions and allowed him to use the studio’s facilities.
An early assignment was photographing some of the celebrated presenters at Radio Humberside – Steve Massam, Andy Comfort, Carl and Gloria, Peter Adamson. Humberside Engineering Training Association (HETA) became a regular client, so too Arco and KCOM. Taking pictures for the front cover of the telephone directory.
SAX AND THE CITY: Patrick Pretorius of The Talks plays Humber Street Sesh, August 1, 2015
There were cultural shoots with Freedom Festival, Humber Street Sesh and UK City of Culture, but maritime work will always be Neil’s passion and he struggles to conceal the pride in revealing that some of his work will feature in the restored maritime museum.
“I remember growing up in the 70s as a boy scout and going to see HMS Tiger in King George Dock,” Neil said.
“Also in the 70s I went on board a trawler in one of the docks. Even as a youngster growing up in Hornsea I used to go sailing on Hornsea Mere. I have always loved water and the sea.
“When I first came back from college in Leeds it was the scale of things that really had an effect on me. You see these massive ships, especially the commercial ones, huge things that really gave me an interest.”
Technology has opened up basic photography to all-comers. Neil will admit you can get some great pictures using just a smartphone, but only if you have a good understanding of what a decent picture looks like. Not all professional photographers have that but Neil is typically laid back about competition, whether on cost or quality, and it has nothing to do with his decision to retire.
SHIPBUILDING: Richard Dunston’s shipyard, Hessle, July 1, 1988
He said: “My wife Jackie is retired and I decided I wanted to spend more time with her. Also I’m 62, I don’t know how much time I’ve got left and I don’t want to spend it all working. I want to catch up on all the things I haven’t had time to do. Including walking. I have five grandchildren and I love doing things with them.
“Photography isn’t really a job is it? I don’t like the quote about never working a day in your life, because it is very hard work, but I have always been very enthusiastic about it.
“One of the things that stands out is all the different people I have met and I will miss that to some degree but I’m a friendly bloke and I chat to people on the bus. What I hope to do in the future if time allows is a bit of volunteering at maritime projects.
“I’ll still take photographs. I quite like relics. You can walk round the city and see the relics of the past. If they could talk what would they tell you? Things in plain sight that had a role to play in the past.”
He might even win another award: “I won one for the National Historic Ships photography competition. Best newcomer. I was 60!”
He’ll be missed but he’ll still be around, talking to people on buses because he has much more to tell, and taking a few pictures because he wants to. And because proper photographers never really retire. They just refocus.