{"id":226076,"date":"2026-01-07T21:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/226076\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T21:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:48:13","slug":"dont-look-down-lightbulb-changers-on-clifton-suspension-bridge-beezers-best-photograph-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/226076\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t look down! Lightbulb-changers on Clifton Suspension Bridge: Beezer\u2019s best photograph | Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the age of 12 I was working for the Clash, handing out flyers. I looked older than I was and got to see all the punk bands before getting into reggae sound systems. Multicultural Bristol<\/a> was a great place to grow up, and by the time I was 14 or 15 I\u2019d be going out late most nights and coming home mid-morning.<\/p>\n

Having failed the entrance exam to be a gas fitter, I enrolled on an audio-visual course \u2013 one of Thatcher\u2019s new National Training Initiatives<\/a>. I specialised in photography and started documenting all those nights out \u2013 my friends and the scenes I was already part of \u2013 offering an insider\u2019s perspective. Photography also gave me an opportunity to explore new environments. If there\u2019s something you\u2019re not sure about, a camera is a good way to have a look at it, be part of it, and then learn from it.<\/p>\n

I needed to do a little jump across. The cars below looked like matchboxes, the people like pinheads<\/p>\n

After college, I got work as a stringer for NME, and also for a Bristol magazine called Venue. This picture was taken for a Venue editorial called Life on the Bridge. I went to get some shots of the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the toll keeper and so on, and on the day I was there a gang of maintenance guys happened to be on site to change the lightbulbs on top of the towers. They said: \u201cDo you want to come up and take a shot of us?\u201d Of course I said: \u201cYeah!\u201d<\/p>\n

I had to climb up a ladder at the side of the bridge to the middle of one of the towers, then switch to another ladder. At the top, I needed to do a little jump across to the 150-year-old wooden floor inside the turret of the tower. The gap was only about half a metre, but below me the cars driving across the bridge looked like matchboxes and the people looked like pinheads. I was like: \u201cFucking hell!\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the guys came up with me in case I had any problems, the rest started from the middle of the bridge and walked up the chain that held up the suspension cables. This was just before their lunch break, so they didn\u2019t waste any time. I was still thinking about the fact that I\u2019d overcome my vertigo to get up there and was trying to avoid looking down when suddenly there they were on the chain in front of me. I have outtakes of them all still standing up \u2013 there\u2019s no safety equipment and they\u2019re not hanging on to anything. Perhaps if the mayor or someone had been visiting they\u2019d have worn harnesses, I don\u2019t know. They just said: \u201cIs this all right? Hurry up, Beez!\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 40 years since I took the picture, but it feels like it\u2019s gone in a flash. Actually, I heard that one of those guys only retired last year. If someone asked me to go and shoot the same thing, in the same conditions, I\u2019d probably do it but what with health and safety, a shot like that wouldn\u2019t happen today. I don\u2019t know if they even had any hard hats, no one was wearing one, and I don\u2019t know if the picture caused them any trouble afterwards. But the trust who own the bridge have bought copies of it and I used to see it round Bristol, in restaurants and so on \u2013 it\u2019s certainly one of my most popular shots.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been described as a photographer and a historian, which is funny \u2013 the work ages, but I\u2019m still around. I\u2019m glad to have left my mark, but the volumes I\u2019ve just brought out are called Until Now: A Life in Photographs because I\u2019m still doing it, and hope to carry on for a long time yet. Still, I look through those older photos and there are so many people in them that aren\u2019t here any more. People don\u2019t last for ever, but photos of them do.<\/p>\n

Photograph: Courtesy: BeezerBeezer\u2019s CV<\/p>\n

Born: Bristol, 1965
High point: \u201cHaving 93 simultaneous exhibitions at Adidas stores across Japan when they were the main sponsors of my Wild Dayz<\/a> book in 2004. And, holding and seeing the Until Now Alpha and Beta editions for the first time was like holding newborn twins.\u201d
Top tips: \u201c1) Try to get that one image that sums it all up. Let the picture say everything without text. 2) Use your camera or images to get deep within your scene. If you\u2019re part of it then you\u2019re halfway there. 3) Being freelance is great when you\u2019re working, crap when you\u2019re not. 4) Print a picture instead of sending data. Look at a photobook instead of images on a monitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until Now Vol 1: Books Alpha and Beta are published and available through PC-Press<\/a>. Until Now: Here We Are Part 2 is at Farsight Gallery, London<\/a>, 10-14 January<\/p>\n