DAVID VARLEY, founder on the ONFilm Group talks about the story so far...
27th of June 1966, was fairly important for me, the day I was born. On the 30th July, 33 days later, England beat Germany in the World Cup Final at Wembley, 4 - 2, this country's most iconic football moment. My father John Varley was on the Wembley turf that very day, Dad was a photographer. No ordinary photographer I might add, in fact to be honest there is only one word that described Dad, and it's not a word I use that often, "Genius", and it was my Dad that captured these iconic images below of that great day.
John Varley worked for the Daily Mirror as a photographer for nearly 40 years. His photographs graced the papers pages day in day out, he won so many awards (Including the coveted Golden eye), we lost count. People used to say, " Your Dad's lucky ", the truth was, he combined great skill with thought and dexterity. He planned ahead, running image scenarios through his mind before they happened, and here's the proof...
The story behind those photographs
In the mid sixties the Mirror built a Plant in Northern Ireland which would be able to print colour photographs for the first time in a National Newspaper. Dad's assignment was to get colour photographs of the England V Germany Final in 1966. Photographers Passes were restricted to 28. England ended up with only 3 passes for all the newspapers. The best the office could do was get John a spectators seat in one of the stands. They wanted 35mm transparencies, and gave him an old Hasselblad to work with which was delivered to the ground. The pentaprism was upside down, making the camera virtually impossible to use, and there was no time to test it, he also discovered that it had a faulty shutter which let light in ! Dad had taken his own Hasselblad anyway, and a back-up 35mm camera, re-inforcing my theory of forward thinking.
The position in the stand was useless so at half time he walked on to the pitch wearing an armband he'd worn at the Rugby League Final the previous week. Everything had gone wrong up till then and he was in a fever of anxiety but he ended up with pictures filling the middle pages, the front and the back which went out in full colour in Northern Ireland. The next day, picture editor Simon Cline phoned to tell him he was now on the London Staff., something he always resisted, but he was given all colour assignments after this triumph, until the IRA blew up the colour plant that is !
4 years later, Dad photographed the World Cup Rally, which was sponsored by The Daily Mirror, the race ended 20 miles from Mexico City in a little town called Fortin de las Flores where a Fiesta was held to celebrate. The following day, Dad along with reporter Alan Staniforth and racing driver Norman Bagueley set off for Mexico City to photograph and report on the opening ceremony of the World Cup. After only a short distance the car's engine fell out, they left Norman to get the wreck towed and hitch hiked the rest of the way to arrive just in time for the opening ceremony at the magnificent Aztec Stadium. Dad spent three weeks covering the event.
England V Brazil football match at the Guadalajara Stadium ( Mexico ) in 1970.
This was the symbolic match of the 1970 World Cup Finals, the holders England, against the Samba marvels of Brazil. Dad knew that if Pele were to acknowledge Moore and vice-versa, this would be a great image, and below is the proof, he followed Moore after the final whistle waiting for the moment, he was ready. Then it happened. To give you some idea of the timing, their is a very brief clip of film that shows it as well, it's only a couple of seconds, dad's photograph, just captures that moment, it's as though they have been stood there, facing each other smiling forever. Mutual Respect.
With John Varley as your father, your never far from a camera, I had a fascinating childhood appearing in the Daily Mirror frequently, mostly with animals, as you can see below.
I had a camera in my hand from around 3 years old and with dad as my teacher, second best, would never ever do. Looking back I count myself very lucky to have had a teacher like dad.
From the age of 14, I was sat at football pitches on a saturday taking photos, mainly at Leeds, Everton and Newcastle, I used to freelance with my brother Andrew and we would send our photographs to the national newspapers.
In those days we used 35mm film, and would process and print our photographs in a darkroom, hours later, probably around 9pm on a saturday night, we would have all the photographs printed and finished, then we would package them. Early Sunday morning, I would take them to Leeds train station, give the guard a quid who would drop them off in Manchester for waiting newspaper runners, who would then take them to the papers, at that time of course the Mirror, Mail, Express and Star, and many others were actually printed in Manchester, so our photographs would regularly appears in the monday papers.
At 19, I managed to get a job with York & County Press as a photographer and re-located to York, 3 years later. I started to get interested in TV whilst in York, and offered my services as a freelance to YTV's Calendar, at that time they did need someone in Sheffield and Chesterfield, so I grabbed the opportunity and purchased my very first video camera, a JVC SVHS Camera, and started my life as a freelance.
For 2-3 years, I based myself in Chesterfield and pretty much learned on the job how to shoot for the news, 4 to 5 years later, I did my first shoot for the BBC, and then after that started shooting for the newly formed Sky Sports.
I graduated to documentary shoots for the BBC and ITV, latterly directing, and around 2000, I started to recruit and train cameramen for a new business ( The ONFilm Group ).
Six years ago I decided to concentrate on the web, and now we have a host of web businesses offering high quality video production to companies in the UK and abroad.
In 2010, I decided to employ my own in house development team to not only improve our web presence, but incorporate new technology for our customers, we now have a host of talent under our roof at our offices in Leeds. The teams really at the cutting edge, and we're starting to build new websites, and Web TV for business' far and wide.
We have a specialist property video team now, and they're regularly working for the Nations builders and estate agents, shooting promo videos, show homes, locations and testimonials, and we offer free listings on both our property websites, www.homeonfilm.com & www.estateagentsonfilm.co.uk.
My message to anyone who is looking for high quality video content for their website or business, talk to us about your project, were not just interested in the film we make for you, but more importantly we want it to make a difference for your business, my philosophy has always been the same, " our success, is your success ".
David Varley
Managing Director
ONFilm Group
0113 237 1948
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