Mind's Eye

JOHN CLARIDGE (1944-2026)

The untimely death of photographer John Claridge came as a double shock. John was a pillar of Mind’s Eye Gallery, having presented seven beautiful exhibitions since 2014: Out of Shadows, The Hardest Game, East End, Les Mineurs, A Vision of India, 70’s New York, and Οradour-sur-Glane, as well as participating in two group shows. Moreover, he had only just finished printing and mailing work for an eighth exhibition at Mind’s Eye, Remembering Autochromes, which is due to open next Thursday, June 4.

John was a true professional and a real pleasure to work with. We always agreed readily on the images for each exhibition, and the prints always arrived in good time, impeccably packed by his wife, Janet. Indeed, all requests were dealt with promptly. This rigour and perfectionism came from a lifetime of working with advertising agencies and magazines, beginning at the age of fifteen when he left school.

We met in the most unlikely of circumstances. During the Mois de la Photo in 2013, there was an opening party for a Japanese artist in a tiny Japanese-run Saint-Germain boutique specialising in Lolita and Gothic fashion. The few pieces of graphic art were dotted about amongst the clothes. A small number of people were squeezed into the cramped space, among them John Claridge. He had just returned from a Pirelli calendar event in Milan and we started chatting, in English. He showed me photos of various prominent fashion photographers, none of whom I recognised (or even knew of), it not being my universe. But it turned out that we were both Londoners, and born only three weeks apart, he in the East End (where my mother was born) and me in North London. He promised to send me a copy of his book One Hundred Photographs, printed in 1988 for an exhibition at Hamiltons Gallery. This resulted in the 2014 exhibition Out of Shadows.

For the past twenty-odd years, John lived with Janet in a small village in the Aveyron. Τhey came up for three openings, The Hardest Game, East End and Les Mineurs. Several British friends were also present, notably a small delegation from the French House in Soho, for East End. We kept in touch regularly, not only in order to plan exhibitions, but to chat about photography. John was very generous with his advice and encouragement, and introduced me to Blurb books, of which he produced several dozen, in quite limited editions; his book on the East End, published by Spitalfields Press, sold out very quickly.

John will be sorely missed, by his many friends, by Mind’s Eye, and by me personally. Further information can be found on the Mind’s Eye website, mindseye.fr.

— Adrian Bondy, May 29, 2026