Fellow photographers will be saddened to hear that John Gray FRPS has died in Cardiff at the age of 83. During 2015 he learnt that he had terminal cancer but faced the inevitable outcome with great bravery and he was keen to talk about photographic issues right to the very end.
Most of his working life was spent at Rolls Royce as a compressor designer, first in Cardiff and then at Filton near Bristol. He was a member at one time of Bristol PS before he became a long standing and highly respected member of Cam and Dursley CC. On retirement he returned to Cardiff where he became a member of the local club.
John’s talents were many ( in his early years he was a racing cyclist ) but he will be best remembered in the photographic world for his highly creative images which enjoyed huge success in the 1980’s and 90’s. and for which he has awarded the Fellowship of the RPS. He won award after award for his high impact creations which were technically perfect. He developed his own techniques of copying slides through textured plastic to create ‘impressions’ and of projecting slide images into puddles of water which led to their distortion and the creation of many unusual effects. He was rightly proud of an exhibition of his prints displayed at the RPS in Bath in 2012. In his retirement he enjoyed travelling and produced many fine images on these journeys.
John was an eloquent speaker and delivered many absorbing talks to local clubs where he was in great demand. He always explained in detail how he had achieved his images and listeners were left in awe of his technical expertise. John also turned his design skills to making many beautiful objects in wood where his patience and skill again shone through.
Above all, John will be remembered as a highly respected man of great charm and courtesy who had a wonderful creative mind which was particularly expressed in his photography. He will be sorely missed by his wife and family but also by his many photographic friends and acquaintances who were truly privileged to have known him.
John Chamberlin FRPS