Richard Gates

Post date: 29-Apr-2020 18:15:39

Tony Jackson, Tony Barnett, Richard Gates on Brighton Beach 1967

Richard Gates was born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England in the Summer of 1943 and died in London 2017 from asthma related complications. He was Tony and Sue Barnett's cousin, and his early years were spent at his grandparents in Kettering.

When he came to London after a private education in Hereford he first worked at Harrods, where he met his first serious girlfriend Wendy. By the time I met him in the early 60s he had moved on to a job at Garrigue, a cloth wholesaler to the trade, with a shop around the corner from Carnaby Street, near Oxford Circus, London. He was bright, well turned out and great company! We had many good times together in the early/mid 60s!

After a few years he decided that his vocation lay in photography, and in the mid 60s he got into Guildford College of Art, on the photography course. By then he and Wendy had split up. and he met a new girl at the college Cordelia Weedon also studying photography who remembers him like this.

Good to hear from you and Thanks for the additional input about Richard.

Yes Richard was my first love, however I was only 18 and very naive, so he being a lot more worldly wise (or so I thought!) was a bit wary about us getting too involved.

I moved into a flat with him and a couple of other male students - my mum had found digs for me where I wasn’t allowed visitors and had to be in by 10pm, so I got out of there as fast as I could! It wasn’t an easy relationship as it was on and off, however these early experiences have quite a lasting impression on me. He could be very charming, funny and good company sometimes, however later on I remember him being quite obsessive and weird. I'm curious to know whats happened to his portfolio. We had a reunion exhibition in Guilford 2yrs ago “Finding our Voice” It would have been good to have known about it then. Ah well such is life.

Thanks for filling me Paul on more details of Richard’s background.

I knew a bit, but not that he was raised by his grandparents.

I’ve just had this memory smoking my first joints at GSA

and getting quite freaked out by eating a strong cannabis cake he made

and then of him coming to our flat in London with prescribed cannabis oil! I didn’t have a clue how to deal with it all then.

Richard's subsequent girlfriend Olivia sent Cordelia the following account:

Richard burnt his hands one evening when I had gone back to London. He was washing a glass/mug I had used and suddenly felt that as he had caused me pain (emotionally) he needed to feel pain himself. That is what he told me when I went and visited him in the hospital and he had by then shaved his head as some sort of penance.

It is a bit of a shock to realise decades later, that this episode had such a detrimental effect on him for the rest of his life...... I was very shocked at the time but it has not haunted me.

Richard had a breakdown at college and was unable to complete his course. However during his time at the college he showed great promise as a photographer built up an impressive portfolio with some powerful images, which have rarely if ever been seen. In 1970 Richard lived with Tony and Maggi in Gospel Oak. He then moved to Wales were he lived for some years in a remote farmhouse. Jill and I visited him there summer 1971. His cousins Tony and Sue visited him as did other friends. When that burnt down he returned to London

Richard Gates, 1968

Richard Gates, 1968

Richard Gates, 1968

These three pictures may well be self portraits (unconfirmed).

Richard was able to live a normal life on medication, but never continued with the photography. He had a flat near Church Street, off Edgeware Road. Working with psychiatric patients he became a spokesperson for them in the Noughties, and exhibited his photos at a group show with them. He also volunteered, helping out at a charity shop in Kilburn. Tony saw him weekly throughout his life, and he was also regularly in touch with his mother Phyllis, his cousin Sue Barnett, and his nephew and neices. He was at our wedding (Paul & Jill Ernest) in 1972 and came to a few parties we had in West Hampstead although the crowds could make him uncomfortable. I saw him once or twice a year when I came to London- joining him and Tony for lunch at his favourite restaurants - the Stockpot near Soho, the Golden Egg in Bayswater and other restaurants on Kilburn High Road.

Richard was an avid reader of Buddhist, Taoist and mystical literature and always recommended the Tao Te King as the most important book ever written. He retained a sly sense of humour throughout his life.

Some of Richard's portfolio:

Photo by Richard Gates, France c. 1968

Here's a thumbnail sized version so you can see how the hat is just over his head!

Photo by Richard Gates, UK c. 1968

Photo by Richard Gates, France c. 1968

Photo by Richard Gates, UK, c. 1967

Photo by Richard Gates, France c. 1968

Photo by Richard Gates, UK, c. 1967

Photo by Richard Gates, UK, c. 1967

Sue Barnett, his cousin, by Richard Gates.

These surviving pictures from Richard's portfolio show what a good photographer he was. His composition, and balance of shape and form, his use of dramatic perspective, all illustrate his talent. As Jan Fry said "Richard's picture are complex and make the most of light and shadow."

PICTURES OF RICHARD

There are early pictures of Richard from the time of the Witches in the Gallery of photographs. Here are further pictures across his lifespan

Richard at home at his cottage in Wales, c. 1971

Paul Ernest, Sue Barnett and Richard Gates at his cottage in Wales, c. 1971 (Our Déjeuner sur l'herbe moment - with Jill taking the picture!)

Richard Gates, Julius Barnett (son of Tony) and Omar around 1974

Richard at a picnic

Richard at Christmas at Tony's. Richard always had a problem with one eye and this worsened with age, as this picture shows.

Dave Young with Richard at Tony's flat

Sue Barnett and Richard Gates

Richard having a laugh (This reminds one of Richard's photos, where the texture of the wig echoes that of the popcorn - of course it lacks his compositional skill!)

Tony, Richard and me (PE) having a discussion as we wait for lunch in an outdoor restaurant, Kilburn High Road in 2011 (this is the last picture I took of him).

Probably the last picture of taken of Richard. L to R: Julius Barnett (Richard's nephew), cousin Sue Appleby (Barnett), Richard Gates, Sue's daughters Chia and Vita (Richard's neices), and in front Phyllis Gates, Richard's mother, a centenarian. The picture is likely taken by Tony Barnett, Richard's other cousin.