Anthony Gordon Boxall, FRPS (Tony Boxall, 1929–2010) was a British amateur photographer, known for his portrayal of

Gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

life in Britain in the early 1960s.

Life and career

Boxall was born on 15 December 1929 in Redhill, Surrey. He left school at 14, and did manual labour while attending evening classes at Redhill Technical College, gaining

City and Guilds The City and Guilds of London Institute is an educational organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded on 11 November 1878 by the City of London and 16 livery companies – to develop a national system of technical education, the institute has ...

qualifications in technical subjects.Brian Raywid,
Tony Boxall obituary
, ''Guardian,'' 23 January 2011. Accessed 2 February 2011. Boxall thereafter worked in a

bookmaking A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookm ...

company, in the 1960s running its shop in

Horley Horley is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England, south of the towns of Reigate and Redhill. The county border with West Sussex is to the south with Crawley and Gatwick Airport close to the town. It has its own ec ...

. After a customer persuaded him to accept a

folding camera A folding camera is a camera type. Folding cameras fold into a compact and rugged package for storage. The lens and shutter are attached to a lens-board which is connected to the body of the camera by a light-tight folding bellows. When the c ...

to settle a gambling debt, Boxall taught himself how to use it. Boxall was a fast learner; he switched to a

twin-lens reflex camera A twin-lens reflex camera (TLR) is a type of camera with two objective lenses of the same focal length. One of the lenses is the photographic objective or "taking lens" (the lens that takes the picture), while the other is used for the viewfinde ...

(TLR) and energetically attempted to turn professional. This ambition failed but he became an

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

and did much for the

Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England, about south of London. It is in Mole Valley District and the council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs roughly east–west, parallel to the Pipp Br ...

-based Newspaper Press Fund (later renamed the Journalists' Charity). Tony Boxall was made an associate of the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

in 1966. He received the fellowship in 1969. After photographing a

couple in a

Gypsy caravan A vardo (also wag(g)on, living wagon, van, and caravan) is a traditional horse-drawn vehicle, horse-drawn wagon used by British Romanichal, Romanichal Travellers as their home. A vardo must have four wheels, with two being used for steering. The ...

from his car one day in 1964, ignoring shouted abuse and driving on, Boxall felt remorseful and searched them out to apologize and give them prints. He eventually succeeded and after initial suspicion was allowed to continue photographing them. He did this with two TLRs, one loaded with black and white film and the other with colour.Gemma Padley, "The gypsy life", ''Amateur Photographer,'' 1 March 2008, pp. 51–53. Availabl
here
(PDF); accessed 3 February 2011. The photographs, taken from 1964 to 1968, show a warm family life amid poverty and lack of amenities. Some of those in black and white were published in book form in 1992; Boxall had delayed as he had felt unqualified to write text that in the end was provided by Brian Raywid. Boxall also sold the photographs via agencies, and in 2007 estimated that this had earned him £70,000. Boxall died in Horley on 18 December 2010.

Books by Boxall

*''Gypsy Camera.'' Croydon: Creative Monochrome, 1992. . Text by Brian Raywid. *''Negative to Positive: My Life in Words and Pictures.'' blurb.com
here
.Award-winning Horley photographer's book-signing date
, ''Redhill Reigate Horley Life,'' 15 November 2010. Accessed 2 February 2011.

Exhibitions

(

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

), 1984 (160 prints).

Permanent collections

. *

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

(London).

Notes

External links

Site dedicated to Boxall's work
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boxall, Tony Photographers from Surrey Bookmakers People from Redhill, Surrey 1929 births 2010 deaths