John Blakemore

Blakemore was born in Coventry. He discovered photography during National Service with the Royal Air Force in Tripoli in the 1950s and is self-taught. Wartime childhood experiences and Edward Steichen’s The Family of Man exhibition inspired him initially on his return home to photograph the people of Coventry and its post-war reconstruction as a freelance, working first for the Black Star photo agency, and then in a variety of studios including Courtaulds of Coventry where he was initially employed as a black and white printer before being promoted to a photographer's position. Blakemore left the company and Coventry in 1968. In the early 1970s Blakemore joined his friend Richard Saddler as a lecturer at Derby College of Art. He later became Emeritus Professor of Photography at the University of Derby, where he taught from 1970 to 2001, being influential on the younger generation.

Blakemore worked in black-and-white on landscape subjects, making use of the Zone System and much darkroom work on his prints. He has also worked in still life, including a series on tulips.

Since 2010 a large part of Blakemore's archive has been held at the Library of Birmingham, in particular:[2]

• Early Documentary Portraits (1986-1988).
• Landscape Photographs (1970-1981).
• Still Life Photographs (1980-2004).
• Tulipmania, Tulipa and other Tulip Studies (1980-2004).
• The Luminous Garden (1998 – 2002), earlier expressive colour works (1965-68) and Polaroids (1980s).
• Hand-made books and portfolios.
• Portfolios: Z15 (30 x 30), Zelda Cheatle Gallery.
• John Blakemore – Early Landscapes, Hoopers Gallery, 2004.
• Work prints, writings, notebooks, preparatory books, letters, catalogues and ephemera.

• John Blakemore. British Image 3. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1977. Edited by Barry Lane, introduction by Gerry Badger. ISBN 0-7287-0107-3.
• Spirit of Place: Photographs in Wales, 1971–78. Welsh Arts Council, 1979. ISBN 0-905171-40-3.
• Inscape: Photographs by John Blakemore. London: Zelda Cheatle Press, 1991. ISBN 0-9518371-0-9.
• The Stilled Gaze. London: Zelda Cheatle Press, 1994. ISBN 0-9518371-6-8.
• John Blakemore's Black and White Photography Workshop. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 2005. ISBN 0-7153-1720-2 (hardcover), ISBN 0-7153-1721-0 (paperback).
• Photographs 1955-2010 Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2011. ISBN 978-1-907893-12-4. With an essay by Jane Fletcher.

• Arts Council awards.
• 1992: Fox Talbot Award for Photography.
• 1998: Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.[1]

• British Council Travelling Exhibition

• McCabe, Eamonn (2005). The Making of Great Photographs: approaches and techniques of the masters. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. pp. 54–5. ISBN 0-7153-2220-6.

• Blakemore profile at Library of Birmingham
• Stilled Gaze: audio interview, with still photography by John Blakemore
• John Blakemore Archive, an article and video about John Blakemore's work