#john downing

John Downing. Blackpool Tower England. 1985

Sharon Tate waits to board a plane in the departure lounge at London (now Heathrow) Airport, photo by John Downing, July 22nd, 1966.

John Downing A group of skinheads beat up a rival on the seafront at Southend, Essex in April, 1980

📸 by Dove & John Downing.

Chrissie Shrimpton and Linda Keith photographed by John Downing, April 1967.

Doing the tags today, and it appears these fellas didn't already have them - they had very small roles on the show, but pretty important roles on the ships! The quartermasters on ships played a big role as liaisons between the crew and the officers, and would have been the 'first point of contact' for most of the ABs if they had any issues they needed the 'higher ups' to know about or take care of. They would've also been managing a lot of the loading up at the beginning of the journey (and, if they'd been successful, unloading at the end) of all the provisions & stores they needed. I really wonder how well the real men fared, as it's easy to speculate that these were the men most well known to the sailors of the ship in their day to day, and how did that translate once they weren't sailing, and then once they were walking?

Photo by John Downing.