“Michael, you’re a genius.” Jilly Cooper.
people in pictures
“Michael, you’re a genius.” Jilly Cooper.
people in pictures
By Michael Donald
“A brilliant account of one of the most important events of recent decades, told by those who were directly involved, illustrated by beautiful photography” – Alastair Campbell
"It's a brilliant book, in every way." - Lord Neil Kinnock.
I didn't remember much about the 1984 Miners' Strike. I was a teenager living in Belfast and there was other stuff going on.
Working on this project to mark the anniversary of The Battle of Orgreave on June 18th was an eye opener.I felt privileged to spend time with the people who struggled through the 12 long months of the bitter strike and hear their stories, many of which were shocking. I hope this book does their voices justice.
Here are a selection of the people kind enough to give us their time and share their stories. The whole project was shot in 2023/4.
I was brought up, where you just stood and listened, you were told what to do and you did it. No one had voice. No one was heard.
We were found Not Guilty. I was free to walk and that’s what I did. I come out of there because I was free. There were nothing else there they were going to do to me.
The community. Nobody were better than anybody else. It was absolutely brilliant. I wish it could be like that for just a week, so as the kids today could see what it was like.
I went home that day. It were Sunday afternoon, about March 3rd, 4th, something like that, 1984. And I said to me wife, "That’s it, love. We’re on strike now".
he pulled down the union banner and said, "We’re fighting today to defend these jobs, these pits, and as communities’. It's war." and the place erupted. I felt ten feet tall.
We were all over fundraising. This woman asked if I’d go to Ireland with Women Against Strip Search because my husband was in prison. She forgot to tell me, mind there were 50 girls, that we’re sleeping rough in Liverpool until we get on the boat and they’re all lesbians. It was great.
I was at this conference in LLandudno and at the end Scargill’s driver, said to me, “Nick,” he said, “it’s my wedding anniversary, can you do me a favour? I know you’re driving back to London, would you give Arthur a lift?” I said, “Er hm, well, er okay, yeah, of course.”
A lot of people lost their homes. A lot really struggled and feeding a family was difficult. We definitely needed soup kitchens. Pickets with families got a £1 a day but the single miners didn’t get anything so we tried to do food parcels for them.
Going back that first morning it felt like I was walking to the gallows. The devastating bit was the loss of the camaraderie you get with your work colleagues.
I was a 22-year-old facing life imprisonment, I will not kid you on, I was shocked to my core. I was struck dumb. Just for picketing.
Jackie; I think about these police officers that they were somebody’s sons. And that they felt it was okay. And it was okay to be as violent as you wanted towards innocent people. What does that say about mankind?
Money can’t buy integrity, so no matter what they got, they’ll never have what I got and it’s there in me heart, it’s there and money can’t buy that. No amount of money could.
There was no sorrow. We’d battled. That’s all you can do in life. I do say to kids today in school. “There’s no shame in failing only in not having tried.” I think it’s important. We tried. We may have failed, but we tried.”
Lifestyle photography is about bringing models whether professional or not to life in a believable and engaging way.
No matter what you are selling, product or service, ultimately you are in the people business. And good lifestyle photography is the quickest and best way to bring whatever you are selling to life.
Corporate photography can mean so many things. It’s ultimately about humanising people in business. That used to be men in suits, now it can mean almost anything.
The business world has changed seismically and with it the need to make an ever faster good first impression. The purpose of corporate photography is to make that lasting impression very quickly and make the viewer engage with you at first glance.
We live in a world of celebrity culture. I have photographed many. It’s unsurprising to hear the most interesting ones are the people that have become famous by virtue of having real talent or have achieved something amazing. Here are some of my favourites.
See also the FIFA and The Rolling Stones pages.
Martin Scorsese. Film director.
Emily Maitlis. Journalist and broadcaster.
Denise Lewis. Olympic gold medal winner.
Jilly Cooper. Author.
(Jilly said I was a genius and tried to convince me to by a dog)
Paul Gascoigne, 'Gazza'. Footballer.
'Fat Tony'. DJ, author.
Trent Alexander Arnold. Liverpool FC.
Julie Burchill. Writer.
Leonard Cohen. Singer/songwriter. Poet.
Jeremy Paxman. Broadcaster.
Tim Burton. Film director.
Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins. World Snooker Champion.
I shot individual portraits of all the Rolling Stones for the film, ‘Stones in Exile.’ Sadly I was the last person to do so before Charlie passed away in 2021. Charlie and Mick were shot in Stargroves, the house where they started to record the album, Exile on Main Street, Ronnie and Anita Pallenberg were shot in London and Keith in New York. Charlie’s picture was exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery in London where it forms part of the permanent collection.
Keith Richards
Mick Jagger
Charlie Watts
Ronnie Wood
Anita Pallenberg
In 2020 I shot and directed Blitzed: The 80s Blitz Kids Story for Sky Arts. It headlined film festivals in Austin Texas and Sydney Australia.
The Blitz was a dingy nightclub in Covent Garden in 1981. It only lasted for eighteen months but the bunch of misfit kids that went there every Tuesday night would go on to shape British fashion and culture for decades. Here are some of my favourite contributors.
Elly Jackson aka La Roux. Pop star.
“I was too young so I was never there but it has had a huge influence on me.”
Michele Clapton. Academy Award winning costume designer.
“God it was such a joy. I remember the first time I went there just thinking, ‘This is it, this is my tribe.”
Stephen Jones. Milliner to the stars.
“It was a very British phenomenon, that mixture of fashion and music. I mean have you seen how the French punks dress, or how the Italians dance!!??”
Gary Kemp. Musician, founding member of Spandau Ballet.
“We knew the next decade, the ‘80s, was going to be different. It was going to be our decade and it was going to be in colour!”
Midge Ure. Pop star. Ultravox and Live Aid founder.
“With the advent of the synthesiser suddenly the only thing holding you back was the limits of your own imagination.”
Princess Julia. DJ
“Yes we dressed up but it was all about the music for me. That pulsating four to the floor.”
Marilyn. Pop star.
“I just thought they were a bunch of posers. I didn’t like the people, I didn’t like the music, all that electronic crap, that stupid dance…urgh!”
Fiona Dealey. Costume designer.
“We, the Saint Martins crowd, we were so pretentious. You’d never see us smiling in photographs. I’d still rather have been at Studio 54.”
Dylan Jones. Broadcaster/writer.
“It went from The Blitz to the high street very quickly. Suddenly Princess Diana is wearing a frilly pie crust shirt straight out of The Blitz. Then out of towners started coming and something in it died.”
In 2010 there were only 34 people alive on the planet who could honestly say, “I scored a goal in The World Cup Final.” I set out to photograph, interview and film them all. The outcome was the book, ‘GOAL!’ which was the official FIFA book for the Russian World Cup finals, translated into five languages, and was nominated for Sports Book of the Year, and the ESPN film, “I Scored a Goal in the FIFA World Cup Finals,’ which was nominated for an EMMY.
Pele. Brazil. Scored goals in the 1958 and 1970 FIFA World Cup Finals to win both. “It was God’s work. God took hold of me and lifted me up to score the goal.”
Photographed in Sao Paulo.
Carlos Alberto. Brazil. 1970. Scored the winner for Brazil to win in Mexico. “Pele didn’t need to look, he knew I was coming. He rolled the ball to me and I scored.” It is considered to be the greatest goal ever scored in a World Cup Final.
Photographed in the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.
Alcides Ghiggia. Uruguay. 1950. Scored the winner to beat Brazil in the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil have never recovered. “Only three people have silenced the Maracana, Frank Sinatra, the Pope, and me.”
Photographed in Montevideo.
Sir Geoff Hurst. England. 1966. Scored a hat trick to win at Wembley. “I was thinking I’m just gonna hit this with my left foot high into the crowd, the game’s nearly finished. I miss-hit it and it flew in.”
Photographed in the room he stayed in Hendon Hall the night before the ‘66 Final.
Jairzinho. Brazil 1970. He scored in every match in the Finals. “I scored to make it 3-1 and they basically gave up.”
Photographed in a Rio de Janeiro favella street.
Amarildo. Brazil. 1962. “Pele got injured early in the tournament and I was brought in to replace him. I mean, how do you replace Pele!? But somehow I did and I scored in the Final to win.”
Photographed in Rio de Janeiro.
Josef Masopust. Czechoslovakia. 1962. Masopust equalised in the fifteenth minute. “Before I could comprehend the joy I should have been feeling the score was 1:1. They scored and ruined it for me.”
Photographed at Dukla Praha. Prague.
Ronaldo. Brazil. 1994. “To me it was the pinnacle of everything. To score two goals in the final to win the World Cup. I can’t describe that feeling.”
Photographed at Corinthians FC, Sao Paulo.
Zinedine Zidane. France 1998. Zidane scores in the 27th and 45th minute. “It’s the World Cup…I mean, winning it and scoring two goals, I don’t think many players can say the same thing. I’m very proud of that.”
Photographed at Old Trafford.
Roberto Bonninsegna. Italy. 1970. He wasn’t selected for the squad that flew to Mexico. When Italian striker Anastasi got injured he got the call but he was out fishing on lake Misurina and missed the call. His wife took it and he flew out the next day. He scored the equaliser but Brazil would win 4-1. “I saw the ball go in…the joy!. I have a photo and it looks like I’m flying. But 4-1, that still burns today.”
Photographed on Lake Misurina.
Andrés Iniesta. Spain. 2010. Scored the only goal of the final in the 116th minute to clinch victory over Holland. "You just want to hear that final whistle. Everyone is laughing and crying, but you think of your family, your girlfriend, your people and the difficulties you overcame to get to that moment. And for for me I also thought of my friend, Dani Jarque. I dedicated this special goal to him."
Photographed in Barcelona.
The most controversial ten seconds in Olympic history. 9.79 seconds, a new world record was the time Canadian, Ben Johnson clocked to win the mens 100 metre final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It was short lived. Within days he would be stripped of his title amidst a drugs scandal. Dan Gordon made the film in 2012 and I did the portraits for the film poster.
This is the story of one community in Hoxton, in London, and the demolition of their homes. It hopes to shed light on the impermanence of that which we take for granted; the fabric of our daily lives and the people around us. While it’s about change it is not intended to be about loss, but rather the appreciation of what is now. The block of flats, Longbow House, was built in 1929 and demolished in 2003 as part of the ongoing development of Hoxton. The photographs were taken over a four year period from 2000. It has appeared in part at The National Portrait Gallery and the Museum of London where it forms part of their permanent collections.
I remain profoundly grateful to all the residents of Longbow House, not only for letting me into their homes, but for the kindness and generosity they showed me in doing so.
In 1968, The Beatles, probably the most famous people in the world, disillusioned with fame and its seemingly vacuous trappings sought solace at an Ashram in Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India under the guidance of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to study Transcendental Meditation. Ringo stayed for a few weeks, the food didn’t agree with him, and the rest of the band for several months where they wrote much of what would become, The White Album and Let it Be. The place is now a ruin but the bungalow they stayed is still there and fans have been breaking in for years to graffiti the walls in homage to the band.
While the ghosts of John, Paul, George and Ringo are ever present and linger in the cracks of the crumbling walls and the fading paint of the bungalow they lived in, their presence is not a heavy one. There is a lightness to the place, as the ancient forest gently reclaims it and it sinks back into the mountain.
I spent a week there in early 2020.
