I’m tunneling my way through the back end offices and administratisphere at Orms to find myself sitting in front Mr Mike Ormrod himself. A mixture of gallery and garage, his woodpanned office is stacked with tokens and trophies of photographic obsession and success. Lenses, black boxed framed prints, zooms, medium format camera bodies, more mahogany, more pieces that belong to another old camera, more beautiful books. Since opening its doors 10 years ago, Mike has built Orms into the top photographic warehouse in the country. Talking over the massive expanse of mahogany table-top, I’m asking him to sponsor a small campaign. Slowly the feeling settles in that I’m twelve again and asking dad for movie and popcorn money.

A tall book looms in the corner open to pages I vaguely recognize. Black and white erotically charged photographs by Helmut Newton. Yes, you’ve heard it before. “It’s not porn, it’s art”. This is not my first introduction to Helmut’s work but as we’re paging through this massive book of prints it’s perhaps the first time I’ve been a little less dismissive of it. Maybe even shuffled a bit closer to understanding it.

Helmut Newton’s wife, June, made a home video about what it was like living with a man who feminists were calling ‘a Monster’. June says to the camera, “It’s easy. Watch…”