Alfred Gregory - A Retrospective

1	Colne Lancashire UK 1950s
	... cobbled streets and tiny backyards .. these were the sorts of towns that the English on holiday in Blackpool came from.
2	Blackpool in the 1960s #31
	Down on the sands, with the tide well out, a group of people dig for sand worms.
3	Blackpool in the 1960s #1
	Now, that is a crowded beach! The tide is in, and people are jammed together on the sands, and as you step down from the Promenade you suddenly see them extending in front of you with Blackpool tower rising above them in the background.
4	Blackpool in the 1960s #20
	Its along the Promenade, with girls sitting on their deck chairs, above the beach, with their rollers in their hair .. in those days they didn't have hair dryers .. and they didn't have enough money to go to the hairdresser to have their hair done. So they sat like that during the day, so that they would look beautiful when they went out dancing at night.
5	Blackpool in the 1960s #8
	This is the British on holiday .. at the beach on a hot summer's day .. and of course, when you're by the sea, you always go paddling, don't you? So, he's tucked his shoes under his arm .. and with his watch chain falling across his waist coat .. he just goes paddling in the sea.
6	Blackpool in the 1960s #25  Inside pub
	This is one of a series of pictures shot in a pub in Blackpool, during the height of the season ..this Teddyboy, with his velvet lapels, his girlfriend and a pint of beer ...and in those days nobody cared that you were photographing them .. I suppose they thought that I was with the press and that they might be in the paper tomorrow ... when they ordered their drinks, they would say ... "and one for the photographer"
7	Blackpool in the 1960s #30
	.. just down off the Promenade .. The sailors are showing off to the girls, who are suitably impressed at this punching bag.
8	Blackpool in the 1960s #24  Inside pub
	I was in this pub in Blackpool .. taking pictures at night .. and it seemed to be that no one cared that I was taking photographs, particularly this lonely girl.
9	Blackpool in the 1960s  #5
	Two couples kissing on the beach and perhaps the most interesting thing about it is,  that they are kissing in the crowd .. people sitting in deck chairs all around them .. and they're behaving like that! .. they don't care about what anyone thinks of them.
10	Blackpool in the 1960s #3
	The tide is in .. and people are crowded back towards the Promenade .. and still paddling in the sea with their children .. even their deck chairs have been overtaken by the tide .. and they are practically sitting in the water.
11	Blackpool in the 1960s #29
	Groups of wonderful people sitting as a family on deck chairs on the sands .. sandwiched in between the icecream stall and the back wall.
12	Blackpool in the 1960s #9
	This is the end of the season in Blackpool, when the tide is out and the crowds have gone .. and suddenly the donkeys huddled together there on the cold morning ...
13	Cumbrian Market - Lake District UK Early 1960s
	The English Lake district, on market day .. two farmers standing by with two Herdwick sheep that they're selling.
14	Blackpool in the 1960s #21
	Girls lining up in their frilly skirts to play a side show game .. layers of petticoats, as was the fashion in those days.
15	Blackpool in the 1960s #27
	Women and children playing in the sea with this nice evening light with a sparkle on the sea
16	Winter Czechoslovakia 1966 #2
	...suddenly being confronted with this black and white pattern of abstract forms of telegraph and posts showing through the blizzard .. it just became a sensational theme that had to be recorded
17	Winter Czechoslovakia 1966 #3
	This scene was pure abstract .. it had been snowing overnight and then I drove into DZar on the border of Czechoslovakia and Poland .. and I suddenly found the scene like this .. just these stark black shapes against the snow.
18	Skaters Zaanse Schans Holland 1970
	Holland .. just before Christmas .. at a time when there was a very, very cold spell .. all the canals were frozen with people skating along them .. even parts of the sea were frozen.
19	Calabria Italy
	This is down in the south of Italy in the old days, when all these country towns were unchanged. People sitting in front of their homes .. hens in the streets.
20	Women in Mazar-i-Sharif Afghanistan 1969
	..seeing these dark shapes of these women in their chadris moving along the road .. these black shapes against the light said everything about Afghanistan.
21	Cantina in Saquisili Ecuador
	In the market town of Saquisili in Ecuador .. suddenly, as I came through the door of a local bar I found these chaps a little bit drunk .. handing around their bottles of beer on market day.
22	Foggy morning in Hyde Park London 1970
	This was a time when I was in London in the early 1970's, I was there over the week-end and there was dense fog over London. I decided that I would go into             Hyde Park to take some pictures and these are some of the people that walked by .. a young couple with a pram and a couple of police men.
23	Everest First Ascent 1953 Base Camp. Charles Evans and Mike Ward on the extreme left
	Ektachrome ASA 10 A picture of Base Camp, as it was in those days, and all these big Seracs in this area are now gone with all the Glaciers in the world receding .. and of course many hundreds of tents have been pitched across this beautiful area of Glacier.
24	Everest First Ascent 1953 Tenzing Norgay approaching highest camp at 8500m - note flags wrapped round his ice axe.
	Kodachrome ASA 10
	This is the day before Everest was climbed .. we carried up the heavy loads for Hillary and Tenzing, to establish this high camp, so they could spend the night before attempting the Ascent. The flags wrapped around Tenzing's Ice Axe show his determination to reach the summit, and in fact, the next day they went up the last 400 meters to the summit.
25	Everest First Ascent 1953 Crossing the big crevasse at the top of the Icefall
	Ektachrome
	The Ektachrome film reflects the color of the ice .. the immensity of the Western Cwm .. this huge Glacier and crevasse
	Everest First Ascent 1953 Ed Hillary and Tenzing Norgay approaching highest camp at 8500m
26	Kodachrome ASA 10
	Ed Hillary and Tenzing Norgay take a rest on the south east ridge of Everest .. all of us are carrying very heavy loads .. George Lowe, Ang Nima, a sherpa, and myself are accompanying them carrying up their final camp at 8,500 meters. And here we have stopped to rest, just below that .. and we have been using oxygen during this ascent .. and because the oxygen gear in those days didn't last very long .. when we stopped to rest for a moment, we switched our oxygen off, so as not to waste it, and make sure it lasted longer. And that is the reason why Ed Hillary is standing without an oxygen mask.
27	Everest First Ascent 1953 Crevasse in Western Cwm Ice wall of Nuptse at rear
	Kodak Panatomic X ASA 25
	This is taken at a time when Wilf Noyce and I spent a week working together with Sherpas, carrying up loads from the top of the icefall .. up the Western Cwm, to establish advanced base camp at the head of the western Cwm .. which was the real jumping off point for the South Col and the summit .. and this picture was taken on one of those days, with Wilf Noyce leading a team of Sherpas walking along the side of one of these enormous crevasses.
28	Everest First Ascent 1953 Porter climbing rope ladder in Icefall
	Kodachrome ASA 10
	Here we are in the Icefall .. and the rope ladder .. it's a caving ladder .. and it's a ladder given to the expedition by the Yorkshire Rambling Club, a climbing club in England .... and this ladder is in position .. up the last wall of ice to the top of the Icefall.
29	Everest First Ascent 1953  George Band, Ed Hillary, Charles Evans, Mike Ward and  at Base Camp
	Kodachrome ASA 10
	Some of the members of the team in the mess tent down at Base Camp and I remember that on this day we did have some Indian Army Rum .. which we never drank .. we just kept it for emergencies I suppose .. and this day we had had a tot or two each .. and they look like it!
30	Everest First Ascent 1953 View from Island Peak taken during acclimatization period. First ascent by Charles Evans, Alfred Gregory, Charles Wylie and Tenzing Norgay
	Ektachrome
	Island Peak has now become a 'trekking peak', and many, many people have climbed it since we made the first ascent of it.
31	Everest First Ascent 1953 Ed Hillary, John Hunt, Wilf Noyce and Tenzing Norgay at Camp 3 at entrance to Western Cwm
	Kodachrome ASA 10
	Camp 3 situated just across that big crevasse at the top of the Icefall .. and here one day coming up with porters and their load are some of the members of the team .. people stayed there on nights when they were coming down the Western Cwm, before coming down the ice fall.
32	Everest First Ascent 1953 Big crevasse at entrance to Western Cwm. Wilf Noyce on bridge
	Kodak Panatomic X ASA 25
	This big crevasse is just at the top of the icefall .. the first 2000 feet of climbing, real climbing .. until you come to this wide gap .. this big crevasse which has to be crossed to get to the Western Cwm
33	Everest First Ascent 1953 Tenzing Norgay safeguarding porter at top of Icefall
	Kodachrome ASA 10
	Coming out of the final wall of ice at the top of the Icefall .. that puts you into the valley of the Western Cwm and Camp 3 .. the porter here is descending down the rope ladder, while the figure above safeguarding them is Tenzing. You will see that Tenzing has a lot of zinc cream on his face .. you needed it for protection against the high UV.
34	Everest First Ascent 1953 Base Camp Left to right Tom Bourdillon, Mike Ward, Charles Evans
	Ektachrome
	Because of global warming and the global receding of Glaciers around the world, Base camp today, has moved up the Glacier.
35	Everest First Ascent 1953 Tom Stobart
	Kodak Plus X
	This is Tom Stobart, the Cine camera man who made the Everest film. At the time that this picture was taken,  we were at Camp 4 in the Western Cwm, we had been working around this camp and along the western Cwm taking photographs. He had just come back and was exhausted and put his head down.
36	Everest First Ascent 1953 Ed Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbing to highest camp at 8500m
	Kodachrome ASA 10
	Climbing up from the South Col. That day we are carrying very heavy loads .. looking back at Hillary and Tenzing coming up the South East Ridge on the way to the highest camp on the mountain.
37	Everest First Ascent 1953 George Band cutting steps in Ice fall
	Kodachrome ASA 10
	It looks like a warm sunny day .. people used to ask George why was he wearing his Panama hat .. and George, who was a bit of a humorist, said: " .. ah well .. its because I got it for two and six pence!"
38	Everest First Ascent 1953 Porters beginning ascent of Lhotse face
	Kodak Panatomic  X ASA 25
39	Ama Dablam expedition 1958
	Kodak Plus X
	It is just one of those beautiful, crisp early mornings, high in the mountains on the ridge of Ama Dablam .. with these wonderful views of some of the most magnificent peaks in the world .. as they are around mount Everest.
40	Everest First Ascent 1953 Porters putting on crampons
	Kodachrome ASA 10
	Every morning as the Sherpa porters are preparing themselves for a days work .. they would have to put on their crampons to get ready to carry the heavy loads up the mountain
41	Everest from the South Col
	Kodak Plus X
	This is a picture taken at the South Col, across the snowy wilderness of the Col with the last thousand feet of Everest in cloud rising above it ... and in those days it was something of a pristine wilderness .. with no footprints on it whatsoever .. now, in modern times it is covered in litter .. with scores of oxygen bottles .. abandoned camp sites and dead bodies
42	Everest First Ascent 1953 Nawang Gombu with one of my cameras crossing big crevasse in Western Cwm
	Kodak Plus X
	Crossing that big crevasse ... Nawang Gombu crawling over the ladder, being safeguarded by a sherpa on the other side .. and he is carrying, around his neck, my Kodak Retina II camera
43	Camp on Ama Dablam Nepal 1958
	Ama Dablam, one of the mountains, very close to Mount Everest .. I was there with an expedition that I was leading in 1958 .. this picture was taken on the ridge.
44	Everest First Ascent 1953 Sherpa team which worked on Lhotse face and carried to South Col with Wilf Noyce and Charles Wylie
	Kodachrome ASA10
	After the climb was over .. I was doing some routine pictures of members of the team .. and this one of this particular group was down at Base Camp.
45	Stanley Glacier Mt Margherita Ruwenzorie Mountains of the Moon Uganda
	.. this is Ruwenzorie, which is often call "the mountains of the moon", in Uganda, in Africa. It is right on the equator and the weather is terrible!  It rains all the time! ... I was standing on the edge of the Stanley Glacier and the sun came out and presented me with this tremendous view.
46	Blackpool in the 1960s #2
	A crowded beach at Blackpool .. except,  that I should say,  that the British don't say on the beach .. they say "on the sands". Here the people are being pushed back by the tide .. because at high tide there is only a very small amount of sand left on the beach .. and somebody .. perhaps somebody with a small stall,  has tried to keep this space clear .. perhaps so that he can sell winkles and shellfish .. but to no avail!
47	Everest First Ascent 1953 Wilf Noyce with porter in Western Cwm
	Kodak Panatomic X
	It's Wilf Noyce and a Sherpa amongst the Seracs of the Western Cwm .. it gives a tremendous sense of openness .. the expanse of the Western Cwm as it runs up underneath this great Ice Wall of Lhotse.
48	Everest First Ascent 1953 Tenzing Norgay and Ed Hillary at Advance Base Camp on return form Summit
	Kodak Plus X
49	Everest First Ascent 1953  Ice Serac on Khumbu Glacier
	Kodak Panatomic X ASA 25
	Its a giant Serac just near Base Camp .. which has now disappeared .. the porters going past it give some size of the Seracs.