An old friend and former colleague JOHN HODGETT, formerly head of photography at Bourneville School of Art and Birmingham Polytechnic (now Birmingham City University), died on 4th June.
As well as being an inspirational teacher and exhibiting photographer John fought hard to establish a strong photography presence in Birmingham for many years and it was only when the late Pete James at the Library of Birmingham and separately, the late Rhonda Wilson with Rhubarb Rhubarb emerged around the1990s did that change. But John thought the second city should have a gallery solely devoted to the medium.
Born in Glasgow, he completed a foundation course at Stafford College of Art in 1968 followed by teacher training in Portsmouth. He became head of art at King Edward VI School, Stafford in 1973 and remained there for 10 years before going to run photography at the renowned Bourneville School of Art. He did an MA at Birmingham Polytechnic before starting a PhD with me at De Montfort University, Leicester in 2001. From 1987 he ran the photography degree course at Birmingham Poly until he retired. He continued with many photographic projects that followed earlier ones on the construction of the M6 Toll motorway, and another using an early scanner to produce Ground Scans. On his many visits to the Peak District, where his late father lived, he made scores of wonderfully revealing portraits of couples who visited the tourist honeypot of Dovedale.
He is survived by his wife, Wendy and children Beth and Tom.
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