Derek Gardiner

Sadly, Derek Gardiner passed away on December 19th 2024 at the age of 100.  Besides my parents (and the hospital staff), Derek knew me longer than anyone else; he'd come to take pictures of my mother's new-born when I was just a day old.  He was one of the most extraordinary people I've had the privilege to know.

Conscripted into the army at the age of 18, he served as a photographer in India for the two years before the war ended. After demobilization, he began working in the family business, Walter Gardiner Photography, founded by Derek's grandfather.  During the 1960s he transitioned the business away from the retail shop and D&P to focus on commercial and industrial photography. He built a studio in East Worthing with enough room to photograph cars and the like, with processing and printing on the premises. The business flourished for 30 years under his ownership and management.  

Not only was he a shrewd businessman; he was also a highly talented artist. Derek was named Ilford's commercial and industrial photographer of the year in 1984. He took up wood carving in the 1980s and created several striking wood sculptures. But photography remained his principal medium After retiring in the mid 1990s, he continued to push boundaries with homemade pinhole cameras, and homemade photographic papers and dyes.    

He was one of the most immensely curious people I've known, always reading, extraordinary knowledgeable about everything from world affairs to classical music and jazz to modern art, and culture.  In his late 60s he enrolled in the Open University and earned a degree in geology.    

Thanks to his devoted wife, Betty he travelled widely to places few people visited at least at the time they made their trips to Eastern Europe (Hungary, Romanis, Yugoslavia) ,China, Tibet, India, the Silk Road, and several countries in South and Central America.    

Betty passed away six years ago. Despite deteriorating eyesight, he managed to live out his final years in the house he and Betty had built in the 1980s. He remained active throughout, walking regularly on the South Downs, always looking for some new artistic endeavor.   

I remember fondly the spirited conversation he (and Betty) would have with my parents whenever they came to dinner (which was probably at least once a fortnight). Memorable events with Betty and Derek and my parents included Peter Shaffer's Equus at Chichester Festival Theatre in 1973 and David Hockney's sets for Mozart's The Magic Flute for the Glyndebourne Festival in 1978.

While I didn't get to know him well until well into my 40s (he was such an intimidating figure for me as I was growing up) Derek was, and will be, an inspiration and a role-model.     

A sad irony

There's a particular irony in Trump's reelection; he will only exacerbate the problems that got him elected.  In large part, the country is fed up with globalization and the "international order" the US established and has been largely responsible for maintaining for three quarters of a century. Globalization may have gotten us cheap goods from China but at the expense of middle class jobs. Cheap shit is all very well but doesn't make up for having to have two jobs to stay afloat. And many American's are tired of being asked to sort out every global conflict even though it's often not because to export American values but for economic self interest.  

The federal government's inability to address these fundamental questions (and the left's preoccupation with perceived inequality) has led to a decline in trust in the government.  Congress has not only been effective, but it's increasingly hyperbolic partisanship has undermined trust in the institution.  The executive branch hasn't helped by politicising the judiciary and most visibly the supreme court which has undermined trust in that institution, aided by a fragmented and increasingly partizan media.

It is that disillusion and mistrust that propelled Trump into office. Twice.  The irony is that Trump will only make matter worse.  His lies further erode trust in politicians in general. ANd his public disparaging of any institution that doesn't kiss the ring further undermines public trust in the institutions that are essential to a well ordered society and effective governance. 

While the Democrat's hair-on-fire warnings about the end of democracy are probably over-blown - we would only have known had Harris won the last election - the status quo is not anything we should be proud of.  The concentration of post and influence in the hands of a tiny group of the most wealthy individuals in the country has echoes of the robber barons of the 19th century.  And while the oligarchy persists and becomes more entrenched as it organizes society in its own interest the disconnect between the electorate and the government will only widen. 

Let's not forget Trump's pardons of the Jan 6th insurrectionists. These are people who Trump encouraged to break the law on his behalf. They are not "patriots" or martyrs. They all knew (or had no excuse for not knowing) that Trump had lost the election and therefore their attempt to install him as president was an attempt to overturn an election through subterfuge (the fake electors scheme) and violence (the Jan 6th "protestors").     

The "whataboutism" for Biden's pardons is a complete red herring. Biden was protecting some people from Trump's vindictive abuse of tje DoJ to punish his political opponents as ill advised it was. Trump by contrast is endorsing and legitimizing (literally) law breaking when it's done in his interests.  That further undermines confidence in the judicial system and the institutions of government.  

Sadly, Trump's BS also diverted attention away from a fundamental problem; campaign finance. Until elected officials don't need to rely on big money donors, we will never had a democracy that more closely reflects the needs to voters rather than those of the people writing the checks. But thanks to Trump (and to  a degree, those who preceded him), we haven't had any conversation about campaign finance reform for almost a decade.