1967, aboard the ' Queen Mary ' from Southampton to New York & back to record something of the atmosphere, people & activities during her penultimate voyage.
Oh dear, what people ! Bankers, financiers, CEOs from massive international institutions etc. etc. - that's only the men. The women were dripping diamonds, pearls, works of art of all kinds hanging around their necks. Margaret Dumont lookalikes all over the place ! Graucho, Harpo, where were you ! You should have been there !!
One morning walking on a near deserted deck am aware of someone approaching from opposite direction. Suddenly realise I know the face & have done so for years. This is incredible, almost unbelieveable ! He approaches, smiles, & to our mutual astonishment we realise we are both carrying identical 'stills' cameras around our necks, top of the range Nikon F models. This is good reason to talk photography, so we seat ourselves comfortably & talk & talk, lenses, filters, subject matter, photographers etc. We don't always agree but come together on Edward Weston & Ansel Adams. Evetually, we both decide it's time to move & hope to continue again another time but not before I have had a promise of an interview for the film from him.
Next day, interview over, he asks for & gets a ' conducted tour ' of the film camera, a 16mm. Arriflex BL - I then let him play with it himself, pretending to film the rest of us.
We meet accidentally & briefly again, I would have liked to have been able to talk of other matters but somehow the opportunity didn't really present itself.
His presence was quite remarkable & unusual. Within a few moments from when we first spoke I felt we had known each other all our lives, we were ' family.' He exuded great warmth & friendliness such as I have rarely experienced before, certainly not with a newly met stranger.
I am & always will be, grateful for the experience of sharing an hour or so with someone so remarkable in so many ways, far too many to list here.
His name; Yehudi Menuhin
Oh dear, what people ! Bankers, financiers, CEOs from massive international institutions etc. etc. - that's only the men. The women were dripping diamonds, pearls, works of art of all kinds hanging around their necks. Margaret Dumont lookalikes all over the place ! Graucho, Harpo, where were you ! You should have been there !!
One morning walking on a near deserted deck am aware of someone approaching from opposite direction. Suddenly realise I know the face & have done so for years. This is incredible, almost unbelieveable ! He approaches, smiles, & to our mutual astonishment we realise we are both carrying identical 'stills' cameras around our necks, top of the range Nikon F models. This is good reason to talk photography, so we seat ourselves comfortably & talk & talk, lenses, filters, subject matter, photographers etc. We don't always agree but come together on Edward Weston & Ansel Adams. Evetually, we both decide it's time to move & hope to continue again another time but not before I have had a promise of an interview for the film from him.
Next day, interview over, he asks for & gets a ' conducted tour ' of the film camera, a 16mm. Arriflex BL - I then let him play with it himself, pretending to film the rest of us.
We meet accidentally & briefly again, I would have liked to have been able to talk of other matters but somehow the opportunity didn't really present itself.
His presence was quite remarkable & unusual. Within a few moments from when we first spoke I felt we had known each other all our lives, we were ' family.' He exuded great warmth & friendliness such as I have rarely experienced before, certainly not with a newly met stranger.
I am & always will be, grateful for the experience of sharing an hour or so with someone so remarkable in so many ways, far too many to list here.
His name; Yehudi Menuhin
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