THE average Joe in the street might not immediately recognise the names of some of the people interviewed by Michael Hallett for his new book, but they would certainly recognise their output.

Because Mike, who lives in Henwick Road, Worcester, is an acclaimed photo historian and among the photographers he talked to for 'Being There' are those at the very top of their game. Experts who have taken some of the profession’s best known magazine and newspaper images.

His book has evolved over a 30-year period and is now presented from a 2019 perspective. His conversations with such photographers as Tim Gidal, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Carl Mydans and Lucien Aigner, as well as more recent practitioners all reflect the time of their particular interview.

In 1992 he met Eisenstaedt on the day of the 1992 New York Primaries. Hallett says: “Walking on the Manhattan sidewalk Bill Clinton provided photo opportunities for the world’s media. Across the street on the 28th floor of the Time & Life building Alfred Eisenstaedt worked, impervious to the activities below. A year later Clinton vacationed at Martha’s Vinyard, Eisenstaedt’s summer retreat. Born towards the close of the 19th century and still working for Life magazine, Eisenstaedt set up his cameras and lights; the elder statesman of photography was photographing the new President of the United States.”

He interviewed Lucien Aigner in the eary spring of 1995 and wrote: “The warm breeze of the new spring brushed our faces as we walked slowly away from our luncheon rendezvous. Aigner had witnessed many such new beginnings and our conversation had covered many years and travelled many miles, discussing the important and the insignificant. It was Aigner’s observation of the ordinary that made his own view of life extraordinary."

It’s evocative stuff and not surprising, because Michael Hallett has written continuously in the photographic press for almost five decades. He is a teacher, professional photographer and internationally published photo historian, whose involvement with communication and media, and with a career in the theory and practice of art & design education, provides the environment for the storyteller using both pictures and words.

You may not know the names or the faces, but you’ll certainly know what they do.