Andy Hollingworth
Photographer
Andy Hollingworth began photographing comedians in 1995 in
response to his earliest childhood memory - watching his normally
serious grandfather chuckling and guffawing at the antics of
the Yorkshire comic Charlie Williams on The Golden Shot game
show in the early 1970's.
His series of portraits began by tracking down Charlie and
then photographing the other comics of his generation. Sittings
with Russ Abbott, Frank Carson, Roy Walker and the infamous Bernard
Manning followed. Sponsorship from the photochemical firm Ilford
then enabled Andy to produce a long-running series featuring
comedians, comedy actors and writers active since 1960.
He has photographed more than 130 personalities from the world
of comedy and his work is now recognised as an important archive
for the medium. Andy's photographs are included in the collections
of the National Portrait Gallery, Rotherham City Gallery &
the Picture House Centre for Photography.
His work has been published in the Independent, The Big Issue,
Daily Express, Practical Photography, the Journal of the Royal
Photographic Society and Photo Technique.
He has spent the last year producing work at the Comedy Store
in Manchester photographing visiting stars such as John Thomson,
Peter Kay, Rich Hall, Paul Merton, Greg Proops and Tony Slattery.
This work was featured in a recent exhibition as part of that
city's Comedy Festival. He has recently produced a large-scale
permanent installation at the Manchester Store featuring the
world -famous improv stars the Comedy Store Players and their
guests.
He lists Ross Noble,
Johnny Vegas and Daniel Kitson
among his current live favourites and the Royle Family, Dad's
Army and the Marx Brothers as his celluloid heroes.
Andy can be contacted at andy@hollies58.freeserve.co.uk
 Return
to Andy's colour gallery
Return
to Andy's B&W gallery
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