{"product_id":"free-photographic-omnibus-reportage-1973-1974","title":"Free Photographic Omnibus, Reportage 19731974","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1972, as a student at Manchester Polytechnic, I began experimenting with ways of doing documentary work with people, not to them. That spring, in the city's Moss Side district, I opened a free photographic shop where I ran weekly portrait sessions for passers-by. I found this way of working as agreeable as the pictures it produced and made up my mind to extend the project by putting it on wheels. First, though, I needed money.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMuch of the next year I spent crowdfunding, securing sponsors and applying for grants but, by September 1973, my Free Photographic Omnibus was ready. At its heart was a 1948 Leyland Titan PD1 double-decker bus which I had bought for £360 and repurposed — somewhat crudely for there was never enough money — as my home, gallery and darkroom. Over the next fourteen months I covered 10,000 miles and visited twenty-two towns and cities. Parked up in shopping centres and on high streets I ran free portrait sessions for all-comers, developing their pictures overnight and giving them prints the next day. I photographed 958 people.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe decades passed. Then, in 1997, my bus pictures were 'rediscovered' by the curator Val Williams who created National Portraits, Photographs from the 1970s by Daniel Meadows, a travelling exhibition which opened at Viewpoint, Salford, and it is from Williams's edit of 110 pictures that I have made the selection published here.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cafe Royal Books","offers":[{"title":"Pamphlet","offer_id":50485041791307,"sku":"2057148","price":6.7,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Daniel-Meadows-Free-Photographic-Omnibus-Reportage-1973_ed18621e_thumbnail_4.jpg?v=1727594646","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/products\/free-photographic-omnibus-reportage-1973-1974","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}