I was sad to hear of Brian Griffin's death at the age of 75. Born in Birmingham he left school at 16 and spent four years working for British Steel before ending up at Manchester Polytechnic. There he met Martin Parr with whom he remained friends for the rest of his life. By the early 1970's he was bringing his unique, artistic style into a new form a corporate photography with his 1974 shot "Rush Hour London Bridge" an early example of his ability to take photographs that made you look. I'd argue that he was one of the first photographers to bring the sensitivity and eye of an artist into his work. For him a photograph was not just a photograph but a statement about what he took shots of. For him the heroic worker was a constant theme.

With the assistance of Roland Schenk, Anne Braybon , Paul Hill and Francois Hebel he steadily built his reputation with his surrealist inspired style became the major figure sought out to shoot album covers during the 1980's - most notably for Depeche Mode, Elvis Costello, Siouxie, Kate Bush, Joe Jackson and Howard Jones, as well as his portraits of Ringo Starr, Queen, Iggy Pop and REM (among others), all led to the Guardian naming him "photographer of the decade" in 1989.

Although he largely left his photography behind at that stage to concentrate on shooting music videos and commercials although he returned to photography in the early 2000's. It is also worth noting that he was a pioneer of the self-published photo book and his "Work" won best photography book at  Barcelona Primavera Fotografica in 1991.

I met Brian a couple of times when he was in Hull and always found him both approachable and unassuming. I recall sitting with him and Homer Sykes, another mammoth of his time, when we were joined by a third photographer I did not know. The conversation went something like

"You missed a good meal yesterday. I suppose you were up here?"

"Yes. Did I. How were they?"

"Fine generally although Don his not been too well and we finished early so he could drive home in the light."

"Oh dear. Is he alright now?"

"Recovering I would say but getting older like us all."

"Was Martin  there?"

"Yes. Just the three of us."

It suddenly occurred to me that they were discussing Don McCullin and Martin Parr and having nothing to add I made an excuse and went to get a drink..... I still couldn't tell you who the third photographer was although I probably should know.

Goodbye Brian. It was great to meet you and thanks for your encouragement...