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  #11  
Old 13th March 2011, 06:24 AM
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Ravindra Ravindra is offline
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Default Harry Fearn

Yes, Harry Fearn's passing away is a tragic loss. I do hope more folks turn up who can tell us about Harry, his early life and other details. I knew him as a pen friend ever since I enrolled with Creative Monochrome. Read about this on the following page:

http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.or...ead.php?t=3974
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  #12  
Old 5th April 2016, 08:12 AM
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Keith Tapscott. Keith Tapscott. is offline
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Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I was just looking through my copy of Harry's book which has been in the attic for quite a few years.

I was surprised that the book sells for such low prices. I shall be keeping mine though to remind me of his workshop I attended back in April 2000.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Better-Black.../dp/1873319304

Unfortunately, the reproduction of his photo's in the book don't do his actual prints justice.
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  #13  
Old 5th April 2016, 07:08 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Keith, in my searches I have found that with few exceptions most analogue photography books fetch surprisingly little in real terms compared to their original price adjusted for inflation.

Some prices seem out of this world but do the sellers ever get their asking price, I wonder?

Mike
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  #14  
Old 5th April 2016, 08:04 PM
Brian Iddon Brian Iddon is offline
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Default Harry

Harry was found dead in his flat in Porthmadog on March 9th 2002,dying from a heart attack. Harry had serious heart problems that they could not do anything about,unfortunetly.

He was a good friend and mentor and in my eyes the best monochrome printer in the UK. My workroom is adorned with his prints,stunning,stunning images. A photographic genius,sadly missed.

BRIAN IDDON
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  #15  
Old 5th April 2016, 08:09 PM
Brian Iddon Brian Iddon is offline
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A PS to the above.

I once got him to give us a talk at Menai Bridge Camera Club. He was so ill he could hardly get up the stairs yet gave a brilliant talk. During the talk he spoke of 3 major things just happening in his life,in this order

1. His cat had died
2. He had,had a major heart attack
3. His wife had left him !!!

That brought a roar of laughter.
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  #16  
Old 6th April 2016, 03:12 PM
ymgandy ymgandy is offline
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I did go on a workshop with Harry alongside Hugh Milsom doing I/R photography. I later booked him to give a talk at Yorkshire Monochrome Group. Must be 10 -12 years ago & from what I could gather he had a massive heart attack while owing an engineering business so sold up & retired to Porthmadog to run photo workshops. A pleasant guy with good photos & lots of knowledge to impart to others. I have the small booklet mentioned which is very straight forward & does tend to mock the long winded very testing methods of "zoning".
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  #17  
Old 7th April 2016, 09:29 AM
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Keith Tapscott. Keith Tapscott. is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
Keith, in my searches I have found that with few exceptions most analogue photography books fetch surprisingly little in real terms compared to their original price adjusted for inflation.

Some prices seem out of this world but do the sellers ever get their asking price, I wonder?

Mike
I agree Mike that there are books that the sellers are asking ridiculously high prices for, but it's some how sad to see that Harry's book is going for as little as 1 pence. The cost of postage has to be taken into consideration too of course.

Last edited by Keith Tapscott.; 7th April 2016 at 09:35 AM.
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  #18  
Old 7th April 2016, 09:32 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ymgandy View Post
I did go on a workshop with Harry alongside Hugh Milsom doing I/R photography. I later booked him to give a talk at Yorkshire Monochrome Group. Must be 10 -12 years ago & from what I could gather he had a massive heart attack while owing an engineering business so sold up & retired to Porthmadog to run photo workshops. A pleasant guy with good photos & lots of knowledge to impart to others. I have the small booklet mentioned which is very straight forward & does tend to mock the long winded very testing methods of "zoning".
I have never been able to find a copy of that booklet.
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  #19  
Old 11th May 2019, 08:18 PM
markwaugh markwaugh is offline
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Default Harry before Wales

Harry was a good friend of mine, we met at the colour lab I worked at in Manchester, I was in the earlier years of my working life, Harry was just retiring from his own business (engineering I think). He was setting up a studio in Manchester to do family portraits and I was helping him, and he would run zone system workshops that again I would help him in the darkroom. He became a good friend despite the large age gap, Harry had run a successful business, he still had his large directors car, but he wanted a simpler life doing what he loved. I think it was stress and heart problems that made him opt for a change even then (the early 90s). He moved to Wales and we lost touch, as this was before the days of emails and social media. He did invite me to Wales, but I had just become a dad to twin girls and this never happened. Harry was a very kind man, he taught me to value things better than just money, I'm so sorry he has passed but glad he had some great years as a photographer in Wales.
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  #20  
Old 4th March 2020, 11:36 PM
RoloPhoto RoloPhoto is offline
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Default In memory of Harry Fearn

Tomorrow, 5th March, is the 19th Anniversary of Harry Fearn’s death in Porthmadog. By chance I found this thread today.

I’m Gary Rowlands of Sale and for 25 years Harry and I were best friends until he died of a heart attack in his apartment over the pub on the cobbles. Our families were very close and my Carol and Harry’s ex-wife Aileen spend a day shopping every Wednesday and meet a couple of times a week. Harry had two sons and now there’s 7 grandchildren and they’re all doing well.

Harry was born and raised in Northenden. He started work in the machine tool industry that thrived in Broadheath. He was very good at his job and went on to be one of two UK service engineers for the Cincinnati Machine Tool Company of the USA. When Cincinnati closed its UK activity, he and Gerry started a machine tool company, Presscheck Ltd. When Presscheck went into liquidation, Harry decided to lease a farm in North Wales where he would set up a photo workshop and darkroom business. That never happened. By then, he’d left his wife and boys in the family home in Timperley and moved on, but didn’t have the funding he needed. His new partner decided she didn’t want to go to North Wales after all and Harry ended up in Porthmadog on his own.

When he was 44 yo he had a heart attack which didn’t seem so bad at the time, but years later he was told that 1/4 of his heart was dead muscle and presumably that resulted in his terminal attack.

I met Harry 44 years ago when he bought a Rolleicord from me and asked could he join me at Sale Photographic Society. At the time, he was a colour only worker using a Mamiya 220 and 330 outfit. I was B&W using Rolleiflex only and it wasn’t long before Harry converted to monochrome and he never looked back.

For nearly 20 years we had an arrangement where we spent the first Sunday every month together, regardless of the weather, seeking photographs on day trips from Trafford. We also attended courses at Paul Hills ‘Photographers Place’ with Fay Godwin, Peter Goldfarb and a third with John Blakemore. Those monthly trips only came to an end when he moved to Porthmadog, however it was replaced by me staying over in Porthmadog one weekend a month. We’d always spend Saturday night on those weekends in his darkroom playing with prints that either of was finding difficult.

Harry joined the local camera club and another in Liverpool and was active in both. He also rented the top floor in an warehouse in Porthmadog, by the small motor museum. He set up his lights there and organised a few visiting lecturers to present workshops there. David Penprase, a photographer from Cornwall was involved in three if my memory serves me right. Plus, he ran his own workshops there and did one-on-one darkroom sessions in his flat. He had a stall on Porthmadog market, but that didn’t give a return.

He owned a wide range of camera gear in his time. His Mamiya, Leica and Minolta cameras were taken in a burglary before he left Manchester. He had a Mamiya 7, Mamiya RB67, Fuji GW670 and a couple of Linhofs and some Leica. The Fuji was his walk around camera and was fairly battered and broken by the time of his passing.

His funeral was in Bangor and he rests in Dunham Lawns Cemetery, near Altrincham.

What I do know is that he still listens to Manchester United’s football matches throughout the season. :-)

If there’s anything specific you’d like to know, please ask. FaceBook messenger might be the best place to find me.

Gary

Last edited by RoloPhoto; 4th March 2020 at 11:41 PM.
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