Don’t look down! Lamp changers on the Clifton Suspension Bridge: Beazer’s best photo | Photography

AWhen I was 12, I was working for the Clash, handing out leaflets. I looked older than I was and I got to see all the punk bands before getting into the reggae sound system. The multicultural city of Bristol was a wonderful place to grow up, and when I was 14 or 15, I was going out late most nights and coming home mid-morning.

After failing the entrance exam to become a gas fitter, I signed up for an audio-visual course – one of Thatcher’s new national training initiatives. I majored in photography and began documenting all those nights out — my friends and the scenes I was actually a part of — providing an inside perspective. Photography has also given me the opportunity to explore new environments. If there’s something you’re not sure about, a camera is a good way to take a look at it, be a part of it, and then learn from it.

After graduating from university, I got a job as a reporter at NME, and also at a Bristol magazine called Venue. This photo was taken for an editorial titled “Life on the Bridge.” I went to take some pictures of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the toll guard, etc., and the day I was there I happened to have a bunch of maintenance guys on site changing light bulbs on top of the towers. They said, “Do you want to come up and take a picture of us?” Of course I said: “Yes!”

I had to climb a ladder on the side of the bridge to the middle of one of the towers, then move to another ladder. At the top, you needed to do a little jump across the 150-year-old wooden floor inside the tower block. The gap was only about half a meter, but the cars driving across the bridge below me looked like matchboxes, and the people looked like pinpoints. I was like: “Fucking hell!”

One of the guys came with me in case I had any problems, and the rest started in the middle of the bridge and walked up the chain holding the suspension cables. This was just before lunch break, so they didn’t waste any time. I was still thinking about the fact that I had overcome my vertigo to get there and was trying to avoid looking down when suddenly they were chained in front of me. I have snippets of them all still standing – no safety equipment and not holding on to anything. Maybe if the mayor or someone was visiting they would have been wearing seat belts, I don’t know. They just said, “Is this okay? Hurry, Biz!”

It’s been 40 years since the photo was taken, but it seems to have disappeared in the blink of an eye. In fact, I heard that one of these guys retired just last year. If someone asked me to go and shoot the same thing, in the same conditions, I would probably do it but with health and safety, a shot like that wouldn’t happen today. I don’t know if they had any hard hats, no one was wearing one, and I don’t know if the photo got them into any trouble afterward. But the trust that owns the bridge bought copies of it and I used to see it around Bristol and in restaurants etc – it’s definitely one of my most popular shots.

I’ve been described as a photographer and historian, which is funny – the work is aging, but I’m still around. I’m glad I made my mark, but the volumes I’ve just put out are called So Far: A Life in Photographs because I’m still doing it, and I hope I’ll be at it for a long time yet. I still look through those old photos and find a lot of people in them who are no longer here. People don’t last forever, but their pictures do.

Beezer’s biography

child: Bristol, 1965
High point: “Holding 93 simultaneous exhibitions in Adidas stores across Japan when they were the title sponsor of my book Wild Dayz in 2004. Holding and seeing the Until Now Alpha and Beta releases for the first time was like holding newborn twins.”
Top tips: “1) Try to have one photo that sums it all up. Let the photo say it all without text. 2) Use your camera or photos to delve into your scene. If you’re part of it, you’re halfway there. 3) Freelancing is great when you’re working, and great when you’re not. 4) Print a photo instead of sending data. Look at a photo book instead of pictures on a screen.”