Following his untimely death a couple of weeks ago on Alderney, I was searching through the archive for a photo of the legendary Ray Parkin to give to his son and I rediscovered this series of portraits that I did in 2006 for a mini exhibition on the island. The idea was to spend one day, with the help of island native Carl Flewitt, shooting as many of the interesting characters as we could find and persuade to get involved. As befitting a man born in a showman’s caravan in his family’s circus nearly 75 years earlier, Ray was happy to pose but not everyone we approached agreed so readily. Another well known figure, Colin, who spent most of the summer days in nothing more than an old pair of red shorts and was rumoured to live in a shipping container, declined on the grounds that as he had been a model in his youth, he would require significant payment! With each of those who said yes, I had a short space of time to come up with an idea wherever they were and shoot it, with the consequence that I was only really happy with about two thirds of the results, with the others not making the cut. Looking back on them, I wouldn’t do them this way now, but I’m happy that I did, then.