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June 25, 2022 68 mins
John Walmsley has been a freelance documentary photographer since leaving Art School in 1968. His final year project was on A.S. Neill and his democratic school, Summerhill, was published by Penguin Books in 1969 (updated edition planned for March/May 2021). His work has been published in 1,000+ books worldwide (He is the author or joint-author of 15 of them).
In one form or another, his work is also held at the National Portrait Gallery, the National Art Library at the V&A, the V&A Museum of Childhood, the Tate Britain Library, Liverpool Museum, and La Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Mostly, he photographs ordinary people and the interesting things they do. His first story was the sit-in at Guildford School of Art in 1968 at the end of his final year there. It became the longest ever sit-in at a UK educational establishment and led directly to there being students and staff on the Advisory Boards of schools, colleges, and universities. The book, 'Finding Our Voice', which you can buy here:
https://www.johnwalmsleyphotos.co.uk/-/galleries/store/finding-our-voice-book-of-the-exhibition
is not only the catalogue of the exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary, but also records the day-by-day events throughout the sit-in (Claire Grey's diary of events and his photographs).
In the 70s he was a part-time lecturer at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. Plus, he lived and worked with a large group of artists at the Digswell Arts Trust in Welwyn Garden City. Think, very large house, lots of creativity but very little heating.
Increasingly these days, he gives Zoom talks to students and/or professionals about having your 'ducks in a row from the beginning so you stand a better chance of making a living. In particular, protecting your copyright so you could be paid later (sometimes, years later) when someone uses your work without asking and refuses to pay anything, typically saying, "Photos are free, right?".

John Walmsley
Web: https://www.johnwalmsleyphotos.co.uk/

Books:
Wester Hailes: https://bit.ly/WesterHailes1979BookbyWalmsley
Summerhill CRB: http://bit.ly/CRB_Summerhill
School of Architecture: http://bit.ly/CRB-AA_SchoolOfArchitecture
Wester Hailes CRB: http://bit.ly/CRB_WesterHailes
Anna Scher Children's Theatre CRB: http://bit.ly/CRB_AnnaScherChildrensTheatre
Sit-In CRB: http://bit.ly/CRB_GSA_Sit-in
Grosvenor Square Demo CRB http://bit.ly/CRB_GrosvenorSquareDemo
Finding Your Voice: http://bit.ly/FindingOurVoice

Interviews:
National Portrait Gallery: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/about/photographs-collection/photographers-in-focus/photographer-in-focus-john-walmsley
Magistrates Association: https://www.ma100yearsofjustice.com/john-walmsley

EPUK: http://www.epuk.org/

Music by kind permission Martin Stephenson:
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