{"id":1298,"date":"2013-08-11T11:02:28","date_gmt":"2013-08-11T11:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/charlotteknee.com\/photography\/?p=1298"},"modified":"2014-04-13T10:21:51","modified_gmt":"2014-04-13T10:21:51","slug":"author-portrait-of-the-poet-dr-dannie-abse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charlotteknee.com\/photography\/author-portrait-of-the-poet-dr-dannie-abse\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Portrait of the Poet Dr Dannie Abse"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few months ago I had the pleasure of photographing the Welsh poet, Dr Dannie Abse’s<\/a> portrait. I know Dannie from when I worked with the literary agent Robert Kirby<\/a> at United Agents<\/a>. Dannie turns 90 next month, so as a birthday present I wanted to take his portrait. Dannie still lives in his family home in Golders Green, North London. We had tea and biscuits (Dannie insisted I had at least two) whilst I took his photograph. I wanted to be as unobtrusive as possible so I shot using my 50mm, just natural light and didn’t ask Dannie to pose throughout. He has had an absolutely amazing life and is mid-story in most of these shots. After tea he showed me old photographs in his study, read me a poem about his wife Joan (who tragically died in a car accident in 2005) and even made me recite one of his poems to him. A stressful yet humbling experience (he didn’t pass comment on my reading!). I was sent away with a book of poems to read on the way home.<\/p>\n

Dannie’s latest book of poems SPEAK, OLD PARROT<\/a>,\u00a0published by Random House is out now.<\/p>\n

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