24/06/2026
My grandfather Reg was a metal worker, notably working on wartime Spitfire production lines. As a boy I loved gazing at his collection of Spitfire models which ranged in size and materials from balsa to highly polished steel. Years later during a visit to the Science Museum in London, I was deeply moved viewing a full-size Spitfire deconstructed, stripped of paint and displayed on a huge wall. Every file and fettle mark was revealed and I inevitably wondered if Reg’s hands had played a part in shaping those wings.
By extension historic cars, stripped back to their original skin of bare metal hold a particular fascination to me. There is something breathtaking and beautiful about lighting shells in this raw state and commissions to capture them are always exciting.
Continuing with my work on the latest remastered, coach built HALCYON commission, I documented the car at the beginning of 2000 hours of meticulous restoration required to take each chassis back to and beyond its original form.
These lines aren’t the result of knowing AI and prompts, nor were they fabricated by a 3D printer in a lab. The object before me was dreamt in human imagination, scribed by artists and formed in metal by artisans. A true joy to photograph. I think Reg would approve.
