UNLIKE others in his profession, Nick Provan, a commercial photographer from Bowdon has enjoyed the lockdown.
Nick, in his sixties, said “I am at an age where I can get by without working and have thoroughly enjoyed walking and cycling.”
This is not quite true because it was during lock down that the Bowdon Rooms commissioned him to supply shots of local scenes to be used in the spaces between rooms.
He said, “For that, I took some pictures around Altrincham market when, due to the pandemic, there was hardly anyone around.”
He remembers photographing Hale Railway Station when the sun was in the right position for exposing the brick.
He also included some pictures of local houses, some taken in black and white.
Recently he has been using the studio of his ‘protégée’, a man who worked as his young photographic assistant 30 years ago and is now an established food photographer in Manchester.
Nick, too, is largely a commercial photographer. He, too, has done food photography for restaurants in Manchester. He said: “I started working for advertising agencies and this triggered my interest.”
He has done assignments for Liverpool Football Club, the posters for offices next to the Bridgewater Hall, and taken stills of the Charlatans Rock Band.
He has also carried out projects for Rolls Royce.
He recalls a funny incident when he was photographing a small orchestra for the Bowdon Festival committee.
He said: “A regional newspaper wrote that it was a fabulous evening except for the clicking of a manic photographer!”
Nick attended Tabley House school where he joined the photographic club and then went to the Cheshire School of Art and Design before working with photographers in Manchester.
He said: “I was brought up in an artistic family. Really, I am a frustrated artist. I can sketch but my art is not good. I am good at composition and lighting which is why I went into photography.”
He believes he got his inspiration from looking at pictures in the National Geographic Magazine and in the Sunday editions of the Observer and the Times.
If someone comes to me with a brief , I will do it.
* For moré information, email Nick at nickpro@mac.com
Julia Taylor
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