£45, Bluecoat Press, Flexibound hardcover, 220 pages, ISBN: 9781908457783
It’s been 50 years since the notorious Free Photographic Omnibus project, but this book shows it’s as fresh as ever, says Amy Davies
Widely considered to be one of the UK’s foremost documentary photographers, Daniel Meadows has seared himself into the consciousness of all those with a passion for the genre.
That’s in no small part thanks to the pioneering Free Photographic Omnibus, which toured Britain from 1973-1974 and now reaches its half-century anniversary year.
Aged just 21 at the time, Daniel drove over 10,000 miles in a double-decker bus to map the length and breadth of England, photographing a total of 958 people and offering a free print to each of his subjects.
Mostly working on instinct, he met a huge array of characters, including chance encounters with the likes of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant while travelling around the Black Country.
Now it’s very ordinary, almost expected, that photographers might accompany their work with multimedia additions such as audio and video, but back in 1973 this kind of approach was unheard of. During the bus tour, Daniel used a hodge-podge of techniques that helped him to capture a greater story than just a camera alon
