It Always Rains on Sunday
Stills photographer Roy Gough setting up for a portrait shot of the then up-and-coming actress Patricia Plunkett on the set of It Always Rains on Sunday (1947)
A still is an industry term for a photograph and it is used in visual media industries to emphasise that you are not talking about moving film. In the past, the term cameraman generally applied to cinematographers who produced the moving image, and a Stills Photographer was someone who produced only still photographic images.
Did you know?
Roy began his journey into photography in the 1930s when he started an evening course at Ealing School of Art. Photography was a relatively new subject there and he was the only student on the course!
Although some cameras were available to students during the course, Roy purchased his own in the late 1930s – an Ensign Selfix, a small folding camera capable of taking 6x6cm or 6x9cm photographs.
Listen to the clip below to learn more!
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Audio transcript
Interviewer: So how many of you would have been on the photography course?
Roy Gough: I was the only one actually. Because the photography course was an evening course and erm, I took it and concentrated on that, more or less, whilst I was still studying Commercial Art and Design.
Interviewer: Did they provide you with a camera, or did you have to provide yourself with a camera?
Roy Gough: No I bought a camera myself, but they, they did have cameras. Because photography in those days was very much studio based with artificial lighting, and so on.
Interviewer: So what sort of camera…do you remember what your first camera was?
Roy Gough: Yes, it was called an Ensign Selfix. A little folding camera. But the cameras we used to study photography were big cameras on stands and plate cameras
Interviewer: Did your father have to buy the camera for you?
Roy Gough: Ehh…no, no. I sort of saved up my pocket money for it.
Interviewer: You got some pocket money?
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