Photographer revered for his intimate portrayal of the East End in which he grew up
At a funfair on Wanstead Flats, east London, in the mid-1950s, a plastic camera was up for grabs. Eight-year-old John Claridge saw it and needed it. He wanted to preserve the memories of everything that whirled around him and take them back home to the terrace house in Plaistow in which he had been born. He threw rings to win it but missed. He left empty-handed, but his course was set.
That path would lead to a decades-long, multi-award-winning career as an advertising photographer. He worked for the tourist boards of the Bahamas, India, England and the US. He shot campaigns for Rolls-Royce, Porsche, Jack Daniels, Sony and Wrangler, and his work was honoured at the D&AD awards and the One Show awards in New York City.
