presents British Comedians a project by Andy Hollingworth Andy Hollingworth took up photography whilst at college in 1986. He began working seriously about 5 years later and, after spending several years photographing dogs, started a long term project to document British comedians and comic actors active since 1960. The series was inspired by his most vivid childhood memory - watching his normally serious grandad chortle at the weekly antics of the black Yorkshire comic Charlie Williams on the 'Golden Shot' game show and the 1970's series 'The Comedians'. This ground breaking programme made stars of many up and coming comics and altered the emphasis of TV comedy from 'variety' shows featuring big name singers, dance groups and magicians - to straight 'blokes and jokes' stand-up. Although the material has not aged well (unless your taste is 'Chalky' and 'mother-in-law' jokes) it was a crucial pre-cursor to the new-wave comedy clubs and gave the British public a whole generation of game-show hosts! The British Comedians series gained sponsorship from photographic suppplier 'Ilford' and the retailer 'Cambrian Photography' in 1995. Andy has since widened the scope of his subjects to include such luminaries as Jo Brand, Bernard Manning, June Whitfield, Steve Coogan, Mark Thomas and Cannon & Ball! Andy's portrait of Alexei Sayle was purchased by the National Portrait Gallery in 1996. David Baddiel used Andy's portrait on the sleeve of his 'Too Much Information' tour video and Penguin books featured his portrait of Craig Charles on the cover of his book 'No Other Blue'. 1998 saw a two year, 10 venue tour of galleries in England and Wales organised by the Grundy Art Gallery and Photo'98. The tour kicked off at the De Montfort Halls in Leicester as part of the Leicester Comedy Festival and received much critical and popular acclaim. Andy's skirting-board portrait of Craig Charles was a prize-winner at the North Wales Open exhibition and his work was featured in an 8 page article about comedy portraits in Photo Technique magazine. A short film made by Yorkshire TV showing Andy making portraits of Duggie Brown was aired as part of Photo '98 and Andy was interviewed on Radio Lancashire talking about The Comedians series. The exhibition's tour continued through 1999 and attracted a measure of public attention with programmes being made about Andy's work featured on Border TV and Radio Cumbria. He discovered a new printing technique purely by accident and began making colour portraits using toilet roll, watercolour paints, film stills, teabags and fresh white bread! 2000 has been the busiest year yet with 17 portraits being made so far including experienced comedy masters such as Barry Cryer, Jeremy Hardy and Mark Lamarr and also new generation stand-up stars such as Johnny Vegas, Terry Titter and the incredible Ross Noble! Andy is now working towards an extended Comedians show as part of a future Edinburgh Festival and a retrospective of his work is to feature many comedy portraits at the Grosvenor Museum in 2003. As well as comedians Andy has been photographing a series of childhood TV icons including Davros and the Daleks. He is continuing a series of close-up images of elephants, giraffes, penguins and ostriches. All images are copyright Andy Hollingworth 2000. Limited edition museum-quality prints from the series can be purchased from the photographer - contact Andy at andyhollingworth@hollies58.freeserve.co.uk. A catalogue featuring 40 images from the series and a set of postcards are also available. (c) Andy Hollingworth 2000. Back to the photos Presented by Comedy Online. The independent online source for stand-up comedy in the UK.