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Commonwealth Photographic Award

The story behind the photo

Arriving for festival set-up in 2002, I decided to go walkabout with my camera. Hearing gleeful laughter nearby, I rounded a hedge to confront a naked couple, frolicking and cavorting in the sunshine with a large container of water. I pointed to my camera and said “May I join you?” The reply was “Of course – Lady Fortune always favours the brave!”, so I held my camera aloft, wide-angle lens pointing downwards, and joined in the swirling, watery dance until we all fell about laughing. I was a bit wet, so Karina and Andy took me for a cuppa and a spliff and we exchanged details.

I was rather excited to see whether I had anything decent when I developed the film – I’d taken about half a dozen shots with the camera above our heads, so it’s a bit of a ‘hit & miss’ technique.

They were right: Lady Fortune had indeed favoured me; with this wonderful image of a spontaneous, joyous celebration of life that was about to bring me international recognition. Blessed Be!

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