Kenny Everett, after he left the BBC and joined London Weekend Television. 1970

Maurice Sheppard photographed in his studio and home in Haverfordwest. Maurice was the first Welsh president of The Royal Watercolour Society.

Here for a change an extract from the early archive, Morriston in the early 1960’s. You might call it street photography. Give a child a camera and adults will ignore you, he probably does not know what he is doing or has no film in the camera, other young people do take an interest. From an early age I was fascinated by the interaction of people in groups. I started in Morriston where I was born and brought up.

Bernard Mitchell

Street children Horeb Road.

Outside Zoar Chapel after service

Cockle seller and cat Woodfield Street.

Self portrait early 1960’s

Bernard Mitchell

Passing out parade, Hertfordshire Police Headquarters, Welwyn Garden City 1970’s.

Bernard Mitchell

Elton John and Ron Rollitt at Watford Football Club 1978.

Bernard Mitchell

One of the many lovely pictures from the annual Transvestite Ball held at the Porchester Hall, London (circa 1970)

Queen of hearts. Porchester Hall, London circa 1970.

Best dressed competition, Porchester Hall, circa 1970.

Bernard Mitchell

Rough sleepers, London 1973, or as I call it the dwarf and the giant. It was a cold winters night, and I am out on the StMungo’s Trust soup run. These rough sleepers stood with their backs to the hot air ducts at the rear of a hotel near Regents Street. Is this the dwarf who worked for the Kray twins? Does anybody know?

Bernard Mitchell

Always the funny man on or off stage Eric Morecambe takes part in a charity walk at the Barnardos children’s home, Harpenden in 1969.

Bernard Mitchell

Graham Hill, a long ride to recovery at the Royal Stanmore Hospital January 1970 after breaking his legs in the 1969 American Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. During this time I visited Graham at his home near Elstree and photographed his young son Damon driving his model racing car around the garden. Sadly he died in a plane crash in 1975 returning home from France.

Bernard Mitchell

‘A pack of cards’

Off to see the parade

Even the pig watched the parade

On to the serious subject of ironic humour. Here is a short series of photographs taken in and around London in the 1970’s. Now in the collection of the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

The Imbeciles Asylum Leavesden, for quiet and harmless lunatics or insane paupers was founded by the London Metropolitan Asylum Board near Watford Hertfordshire in 1870. By the end of the year it contained 739 male and 899 female patients. In 1972 the number of patients had reduced and the hospital closed in 1995. The annual fete had been a regular event since at least the 1930’s. It is a strange fact that some days you can create a wealth of images, making it difficult to edit down to your favourite. ‘A pack of cards’ as I call it is one of my favourite photographs of all time. There are others which I will place on the blog in time. It was a fancy dress parade with floats. Here a group dressed as a pack of cards and dominos wait for the start and in every pack you have the joker.

For more information about the history of Leavesden Hospital see http://www.workhouses.org.uk/MAB-Leavesden/

I hope you enjoy this and many more to come,

Bernard Mitchell

Looking back to the 1970’s, unlike today’s riots of looting and arson, it was a period of politically motivated demonstrations for a well defined cause. Anti-apartheid. Anti-Vietnam War, Ban the bomb, animal rights, and don’t forget the Irish problem. Violence was often the end result of what should have been a peaceful protest. I seemed to be always there; perhaps the picture desk was trying to give me a message? In February 1970, a mass of anti –apartheid protesters had managed to occupy the end stand at what was to become the last Springbok game in London at the time. Massed ranks of uniformed police tipped protesters trying to get onto the pitch back into the crowd, where plain clothed police made the situation worse, particularly for myself.

Bernard Mitchell

An original Chelsea smile from a fan in 1970. At the time of the Watford v Chelsea match at Vicarage Road, there was great media interest. Four photographers were sent to cover the match from the Evening Echo. One for each goal, one on the halfway line and myself as the junior member of the team, outside the ground to cover what the crowds got up to in Watford town centre after the match, which I never saw. Today with Swansea City FC in the Premier league, I am told that lip tattoos are back in fashion.

Bernard Mitchell

Sir Cliff , or as he was known then Harry Webb , was born in India in 1940.The family moved to England where he was brought up in Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. They were a Christian family, with both his mother and father attending church regularly. However, it wasn’t until after his father’s death that he began to search for a deeper meaning to life. By 1966 he had become a converted Christian and was invited to appear at the Billy Graham Rally at Earl’s Court and declare his belief in the Christian faith. This brave public statement at the height of his singing career created great interest in the media. My photograph was taken  in 1971  at a meeting held at an evangelical church near Watford in Hertfordshire. Waiting to speak he  sits on the rostrum looking through the out of focus lectern.

Bernard Mitchell.

After leaving the Berkshire College of Art, Reading, I joined Thomson Regional Newspapers on the Watford Evening Echo at Hemel Hempstead in 1967 first as a darkroom assistant and then as an indentured photographer.

I met Max Boyce for the first time in August 1975, a rare working visit to Wales as a freelance taking photographs for the Saturday Arts page of the Guardian. I photographed him outside the modest terraced house where he lived in Glyn Neath. At the time he had completed the memorable ‘ Live at Treorchy’ album. Max was packing out the halls and clubs across South Wales, and as he would say, in his own words, ‘I was there ‘ when he filled the Albert Hall in London. Coaches in lines from the Valleys confirmed his meteoric rise ,he was the bard of the South Wales miners. Nothing can replace the magic when Wales are beating England at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and the Welsh crowd start singing his iconic song ‘Hymns and Arias’. He performs with joy and humour, enough to warm the cockles of any proud Welshman’s heart.

Max is my first entry in a series of pictures taken from the late 1960’s through the 1970’s while I worked for the Evening Echo, under the guidance of both Haydn Jones and Mike Dellow as chief photographers .I was given the privilege to create with a freedom not seen on regional newspapers. We covered no dramatic wars but concentrated on the more difficult day to day happening of ordinary life. From the start of my photographic career I have always had a fascination with people and their interrelations. During this time however I developed a style which I have come to call ironic humour.

In 1978, I moved from Hemel Hempstead, and joined the North Wales Newspaper Company, based in Oswestry Shropshire as Chief Photographer on the Border Counties Advertizer. After some time I unpacked the last tea chest, which was full of prints from my days in Hemel Hempstead. To my regret today, I destroyed what I then considered not worthy of keeping on a bonfire. However not all were destroyed and the survivors now reside in the collection of The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth for safe keeping. The National Library of Wales (www.llgc.org.uk) has collected photographs both historic and modern since their founding in 1911. They now hold one of the finest collections in the country. In 2007 I was asked to speak at the annual Lens conference at the Library entitled People and Portraits .Lens is an opportunity for professional and amateur photographers, archivists and collectors historians and journalists to discuss photography in Wales and to learn more about the wealth of Welsh documentary photography held at the National Library of Wales through its extensive and unique collection. They chose this picture of Max Boyce in concert for their poster and leaflet. So this is the first of many from the 1970’s that I am going to talk about. I hope you enjoy them. Do pass this on and tell your friends.

Best wishes

Bernard Mitchell.

To see my contact details click Contact in the menu on the left.

Latest Additions:

• Colin Jones, Maesteg, 2012, creator of 'Clockwork the Mouse' an interactive game for Ipad and Iphone. For further details see: potassiumfrog.com

• Gillian Clarke,National Poet of Wales [seated] and Carol Anne Duffy, Poet Laureate of England, at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea December 2011

• Joan Baker, Artist