John D Eccles

I have been working with a great photographer this week. Chris Willan a freelancer from Liverpool (don’t hold that against him) has taken some fantastic portraits of young people at the start of there careers. I am always impressed by photographers who capture the essence of the moment in the blink of an eye.

Whilst working with Chris I had this ludicrous idea which made me think about how I could try to get people to think more positively about our town. What if we took portraits of people and added a paragraph about what they do were they live. 

If you took say 500 portraits and found a wall big enough to put them on and get people talking about them, you never know people may get involved in other projects around the town.

So here we go I have set up a Facebook page www.facebook.com/MadeInOldham to see what demand there is, once we know there is a demand we will then get out with our portable studio and talented Photographers and take the portraits.

 I have been pitching again this week, with better results we will be televising Bury Council meeting on the 4th July live on the internet, a must see event (if you live in Bury). The last council meeting we televised was in Oldham on the same night as the European Cup Semi final with Chelsea, obviously a tough decision to make if you live in Oldham.

So now I am reinvigorated with my new found success this week, perhaps I am not quite ready for the old folks home yet.

I have had what can only be described as a rude awakening this week. 

I realised some time ago that I have reached the age were most bright young things have started to see me as almost transparent and that my considerable skills are being dismissed as old fashioned. I accept this because I work in an industry which has always judged people on talent rather than the date on a birth certificate.

But the thing that has annoyed me more than anything else this week is that I was told my pitch for my latest project was “too northern”!

This came as a shock considering the content of this extravaganza was to promote a northern town. I now truly feel like the lunatics have taken over the asylum!