8th June 2021 · ‘From Railways to Royalty’
Presenter: Jack Boskett
For our final Zoom meeting of the summer season, we welcomed renowned professional photographer, Jack Boskett from Tewkesbury for his talk ‘From Railways to Royalty’ with 44 participants including one from Germany and one from Cape Town. We were promised a show like no other railway meeting would offer and the photographs were simply stunning, unbelievable, spectacular, outstanding. I am sorry I have run out of superlatives!
Aside from photography, Jack’s biggest passion is railways. Aged just 16, Jack had his first picture published in The Railway Magazine and despite being self-taught he has developed his skills for dramatic and atmospheric photographs recreating the halcyon days of steam. He is also a volunteer on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Steam Railway so obviously this location featured prominently as did the Severn Valley Railway. Being a commercial photographer, royalty, weddings, portraits, celebrities, glamour models are all included in his portfolio. Jack has worked with royalty on many public engagements, in some cases as sole photographer and his work is regularly published in national media, the Daily Telegraph and The Times.
Jack commenced his show with the annual Cheese Rolling on Cooper’s Hill and continued into Tewkesbury for last year’s floods. We then saw some glamour shots of Michelle, and Kate at Gotherington Station where GWR Hall 7903 understandably overshot the platform! Using an artificial smoke machine, lights/water etc, we saw many unique images, silhouettes and using his eye for an unusual subject, trains in car wing mirrors and my favourite, a shot of two Class 50s between a horse’s legs! Spectators at the infamous Cheltenham Horse Racing Festival where a special train was run, a hedge in the shape of a train near Devizes, the British Airways Boeing 747s last flights at Kemble, recreation of the St Trinians Train Robbery (which got a full page in the Heritage Railway Magazine) and the G W Railwayana auction in 2018 when the original Flying Scotsman nameplate sold for a record £64,500.
Jack’s favourite image was of Her Majesty naming a GWR Class 800 Queen Elizabeth II at Paddington in 2017. And to keep it in the family, the Duke of Edinburgh leaning out of the carriage window on the Royal Train taken when Jack was just 16 years old on his way to school.
What a show! Fantastic, creative photographs, all shown with a touch of humour. Come back to Sheffield again Jack – superb.