This afternoon I had to return to London Camera Exchange about the malfunction on my X20 and immediately I went into the shop I couldn't help but notice an elderly gentleman who was trying, rather vociferously, to get a discount on a camera he was buying. I wasn't really sure if he was serious or not.
Another assistant helped me and we eventually (I think) have found a way to circumvent the malfunction by using the Custom buttons on the X 20's menu.
I'm now not exactly sure of the order of events but at some point, Victor, the gentleman in question, seeing that I was then also looking at cameras, tried to persuade me to buy the Canon G5 X, which he had just bought. But it's the same size as the Fuji X20 and I'm currently looking for a really small but 'smart' compact for holidays.
At some point also, I took my Sony out of my camera bag and asked Victor if I could take his portrait. First he suggested I did an online search with the key words Victor Gregg Rifleman and said I would find lots of shots of him so I explained again the purpose of my request. Then he said that products on sale would be in the background of the shot and he thought LCE should reimburse me for the advertising. I said the portrait lens would blur the background and he 'feigned' surprise at what I knew. He then said I didn't want a photo of an old person like him.
To cut a long story short, I soon found myself taking a couple of shots of Victor, of which you see the first above. He then told me that he is 97.
Victor has written his autobiography:
"Born into a working-class family in London in 1919, Victor Gregg enlisted in the Rifle Brigade at nineteen, was sent to the Middle East and saw action in Palestine. Following service in the western desert and at the battle of Alamein, he joined the Parachute Regiment and in September 1944 found himself at the battle of Arnhem. When the paratroopers were forced to withdraw, Gregg was captured. He attempted to escape, but was caught and became a prisoner of war; sentenced to death in Dresden for attempting to escape and burning down a factory, only the allies' infamous raid on the city the night before his execution saved his life."
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/rifleman-9781408813966
You can see Victor in this YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9qvvHbNsJk
By coincidence, my dad was a PoW at a cement factory at Cossebaude, near Dresden on Feb 14th, 1945. He and his fellow PoWs were sent in to Dresden after the firebombing to clear up - what was possible to clear up.
Victor told me that has suffered PTSD as a result of his wartime experiences.
I could never have imagined when I started my strangers' project exactly where it would lead me and how interesting it would be to hear folk's stories.
After I found out about Victor's past, my feeling was that his experiences probably shaped his character to some degree although he was obviously a strong person to do what he did in Dresden.
100 strangers started on Flickr and I found out about it from Phil - @phil_howcroft see his latest post -
http://365project.org/phil_howcroft/365/2016-05-04
As I am not a member of Flickr I re-named my project.
Peter I'm glad you found it interesting. I should have liked to get my dad's diaries published but they were not dramatic like Victor's war experience. I did word process copies with illustrations for family and friends.