When I saw photographs of Liverpool dockers by Colin Jones I was keen to include his work in the exhibition Myth of the North at The Lowry, Salford Quays, in 2007.
From the moment I phoned him, he was immensely helpful. After I visited his darkroom in Barnes, south-west London, he made brand new prints especially for the show. He even brought them up to Salford himself.
I remember how impressed he was by the Lowry galleries and how much he enjoyed seeing the changes in Manchester since he photographed the Who in the city in the 1960s, when it was still decidedly “grim up north”.
