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 Normski with one of his early photographs, first published in the New Journal in the 1980s |
Photographs from the Norm
Normski sells his early Camden pictures to raise money for homeless hostel
A COLLECTION of photographs chronicling life in Camden Town and Primrose Hill by Norman ‘Normski’ Anderson are being sold to raise cash for a homeless hostel.
The photographer, presenter and musician, who grew up in Chalcot Square, Primrose Hill, has been a keen photographer since he was aged nine – and is now selling off prints of his work in aid of Arlington House.
The charity runs a gallery in Parkway and this week saw the launch of his exhibition, titled Camden Town, The Centre of The Universe.
Among the local landmarks included are pictures of a travellers’ site on Chalk Farm Road that is now Morrisons, the Roundhouse before its £28 million renovation, and a picture of a car whose elderly driver had managed to park it in the basement stairwell of a house in Chalcot Square.
It was the first picture Normski had published – in a 1983 edition of the Camden New Journal.
He said: “When I was eight years old my mum gave me a camera. I was off school because I was ill and to cheer me up my mum took me to an auction to buy a bike. But by the time we got there the bikes had all gone so she saw this little Kodak Instamatic, and bought it for £3.
“It sat round for awhile, then I took a few family pictures and was hooked.”
But by the age of 11, photography became a real hobby – helped by a course held at the Beehive Studios in Gloucester Avenue. The weekly classes included developing prints.
He said: “While my friends were reading the latest Marvel comic, I was buying copies of a magazine called Photography.
And he feels his home has provided the perfect backdrop for his work.
He said: “Camden in the 1970s was a multicultural environment and I was definitely into lots of different music like rock and roll, punk, I was into all of it the attitude, every thing. My first proper job was working on a stall in Dingwall’s market. “People like Sting and Stuart Copeland from the Police, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart would walk through the market and it would be no big thing, they were just musicians and were to become huge later.”
And he says in the 1980s, when he went on to present a series of TV and radio shows that he suddenly became aware of the international influence Camden Town fashion culture had.
He said: “I will never forget going to the States and Paris to film and interview young people who when asked said they had bought the clothes they were wearing from Camden market.
“This was when I realised Camden was the centre of the world, and there’s no doubt you can find people wandering around Camden from all corners of the world.”
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