Ghosts - in honour of The Last Dambuster
This is a high resolution black and white night time photograph of Lancaster bomber 'Just Jane', taken at the former RAF East Kirkby in Lincolnshire - near where I live.
This limited edition print is one of a series of 120 framed prints. I gave one of these prints to Johnny Johnson - at the time the last surviving member of the Dambusters Raid - for his 98th birthday.
You now have a chance to own one of these prints.
The 24" by 16" photograph is printed on exhibition quality pearlescent photographic paper, chosen for the beautiful sheen that it gives to black and white photographs.
The printed photograph has a 2" mount border within a deep white mount with a V-groove around it. This is all finished in a simple black wooden frame and the dimensions of the complete framed photograph are 30" by 22" - ideal for hanging above your mantelpiece!
The photographer's signature (my signature!) is in pencil on the mount, at bottom right. The limited edition number (for example, 2/120) is in pencil at bottom left. You can choose which unique number you would like, subject to availability.
Your picture will be printed and framed in the UK by Kaleidoscope Framing in Shrewsbury. I use them for all my framed wall art and I highly recommend their work.
Ten percent of all sale proceeds will be donated to the RAF Benevolent Fund (RAFBF).
*Prints are allocated on a "first come, first served" basis - number one has sold already. You can specify the limited edition number that you would like - 2 to 120. You might (for example) want number 25 to give as a Silver Wedding Anniversary present.
On 12th November, I had the absolute honour and privilege of meeting the 97 year old Johnny Johnson and presenting him with a framed print of one of my photographs for his 98th birthday on 25th November 2019. Johnny was the Last Dambuster - the last surviving member of 617 Squadron to have flown on Operation Chastise on the night of 16-17 May 1943. You can watch a short video clip that I shot while I was with Johnny.
Johnny died in December 2022 at the grand old age of 101 - we shall not see his like again.
The Dambuster Raid - Operation Chastise
Led by the 24 year old Wing Commander Guy Gibson, nineteen Lancaster bombers took off from RAF Scampton on 16th May 1943 for an audacious low-level attack on three German dams in the Ruhr valley, using Barnes Wallis's revolutionary 'Upkeep' bomb weighing over 9,000 lbs.
Johnny was the bomb aimer on T-Tommy and attacked the Sorpe dam. Of the nineteen aircraft to take part, eight crashed or were shot down and 53 aircrew from Johnny's squadron were killed on that fateful night.
Johnny was an honorary member of the 120 Squadron (CXX Squadron) Association - he served on CXX Squadron in the early post-war years.
To mark his 98th birthday on 25th November 2019, I gave Johnny a framed photograph of the Lancaster 'Just Jane' I had taken at night at the former RAF East Kirkby.
I will be donating 10% of all the proceeds from sales of this limited edition framed picture to the RAF Benevolent Fund.