A BALLYGOWAN photographer plans to surprise the subjects of his photographs with a free exhibition next month.
Friendly local faces will be on display at Gourley’s Bar in Ballygowan, from May 7-10, as part of a photo exhibition which has been put together by photographer John McKenzie.
The 69 year-old has been snapping the faces of the local characters of Ballygowan, Killinchy, Lisbane, Moneyreagh and Carrickmannon for the last two-and-a-half years, and now hopes to surprise them with ‘never-been seen’ prints.
A charity box in aid of the Epilepsy Society will be available during the exhibition.
Originally from east Belfast, John explained how he had once worked as a commercial photographer but unfortunately had to leave his career to help care for his son Adam, who suffers from epilepsy.
Now in his retirement years and more than 20 years later, John decided to get behind the lens and resume taking pictures.
He explained: “When I turned 16 I left school and went into a commercial photographic studio and I worked in commercial photography up until my late 30s.
“We did a lot of work for the government and companies. We didn’t cover weddings or anything like that, it was a commercial and industrial advertising studio.”
John had been working for Short Brothers in the missiles Department, when his photographic career came to an end, in order to care for his son Adam, who is physically and mentally disabled.
John changed his career for the betterment of his two sons, Adam and Edward, and wife Lynne, before taking retirement four years ago.
“I hadn’t taken any photographs for the guts of 20 years, since I left photography, so I bought myself a wee digital camera and messed about,” John continued.
“I thought I would just do a wee record of the area where I live.
I started off in Ballygowan and thought, ‘nobody wants to look at buildings’ and decided to photograph people – local characters and stuff like that.”
Having never taken pictures of human subjects, John thought it would be a different challenge to his previous commercial career.
“Dealing with people wasn’t actually something I had experience of,” John said.
“At the very beginning it was a wee bit difficult to get people to believe what you were trying to do but as time went by it got easier and people were quite happy to muck in.
“There were a couple of posed pictures but the vast majority
were people in their own environment.”
Originally John had given himself six months to take a few pictures, but instead he branched into two-and-a-half years of work, taking hundreds of snaps.
“My wife said to me, ‘you need to stop’, as it was never going to come to an end,” John said, adding that this was when he decided to pull together an exhibition.
John noted how he did not show his snaps to his subjects and is excited to see their reaction to the exhibition.
“I haven’t shown anybody their photograph,” he said. “I kind of want the shock factor. If you show everybody their photograph they will know what to expect.”
Prints will be available on request at the event and donations are encouraged to the Epilepsy Society.
“If anyone wants to make a donation there will be a wee box there and if anyone wants to order some photographs anything over and
above costs will go to the Epilepsy Society.”
