F or many Old Boys, memories of life at Christ’s College live on in fragments – the rituals of House life, sports on Upper, and the hum of the Dining Hall. Thanks to Old Boy John Eastcott (7674), a remarkable visual record has been gifted to the College Archives. A member of Richards House, John was part of the renowned College Camera Club. His photograph collection dates from February to August 1969. Reflecting on the images, he describes “a group of frames that gives a sense of time and place”. “It is my hope that Old Boys may relate to different images and find joy in having their memories jogged by forgotten familiarities, even if they themselves are not the ones portrayed,” he says.
John recalls arriving at College in 1965, and finding that the Camera Club used a cold, dank darkroom in the old gymnasium where Hec McKay ruled supreme. In 1967, Headmaster Nigel Creese granted the club two rooms upstairs in the old Corfe/Condell’s building. One had running water and was turned into a darkroom, while the other was used for chemical and photographic paper storage. The club had its own enlarger, and boys learnt and practised the skills needed to take and make black and white photographic prints. John believes many Old Boys still have their prints. Richards House had four bathtubs for bathing once a week. John would usually print his pictures on Saturday night in the regular darkroom and then soak prints overnight in a bathtub of cold water in Richards
House to leach out residue chemicals. He would retrieve the prints on Sunday morning while the boys slept in. The striking photographs capture both ordinary and unforgettable moments, including boys learning the haka, Masters at the swimming sports, Mr Hart applying makeup to a student for a school play, and glimpses of daily life around the Quad and boarding houses. John notes that sequences of photographs allow “time and mood to be less statically portrayed than with a carefully chosen single image”. A selection of these photographs formed the basis of a book published by John while still a student in 1969. Christ’s College – A Photographic Study was the first photographic documentation dedicated to life at
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