As I've just mentioned on another thread, I was at a funeral last Monday. Sadly (are these things ever happy?), it was my photography tutor from my days at Staffordshire University in the early 1990s. He died very suddenly at the age of 59.
Mike Berry was a great character and a good man. He inspired me and drove me nuts in turn for the duration of my degree - but hey, isn't that what tutors are supposed to do? He was incredibly broad-minded as far as his attitude to photography was concerned, and although his great love was classic black & white documentary photography, he introduced us to the whole spectrum of what this mad world of photography has to offer.
He's a big part of the reason that I'm sitting at the desk I am, producing the magazine I am.
Several years ago he quit teaching for a more relaxed lifestyle working in a bookshop, but it allowed him to concentrate more on his own work, about which he was always very modest. What was his students' loss was his personal gain.
Each year he would send me a Christmas card, always making a kind comment about Black & White Photography. Needless to say, I'd made plans to call him for a chat, but didn't quite get round to it - and now here I am telling you lot about what a good person he was, rather than telling him.
Do you have someone who's inspired you in your life - photographic or otherwise? Perhaps you might like to think about dropping them a line or picking up the phone and telling them so. I don't want to get overly mawkish or sentimental here, but the future is a strange old thing, so take action in the present - and have a great weekend, everybody.
