Celebrity

As Julian has already reported, we tripped over Dustin Hoffman while walking near Waterloo one evening. As filming was underway and by just being there we'd apparently given our permission to use our images, I figured the lighting was pretty perfect and there was an opportunity for a quid pro-quo.

I now have half a dozen pictures of Dustin, and no idea what to do with them. It's not as if he spoke with us or asked us for dinner, and if he had even so much as seen us passing by, I wonder would he have felt compelled to take a photograph of us?

What do his mates call him anyway? Dusty? Dust? "D"? Surely not "the Hoff"? "Hoffo" perhaps.

When was the last time you took a photograph of someone you didn't know just so you could go to work and show your mates and say "look at this photograph, I saw this bloke today".

Why do we have a seemingly incurable urge to take the photo of someone simply because of their celebrity, when there are already perfectly good photographs in every magazine, and you can even own moving pictures of them if you wish? Let's face it, if he'd been asleep on the tube, I'd probably have made a few bob from selling the shot, but working on a film set?

I don't know why I took them, perhaps because they do evoke feelings of "ooh you were there with Dustin Hoffman" from the girls at the office.

On the other hand I also shot the bloke above, but because the subject is apparently anonymous, in all probability known and loved only by his wife, kids and a few small animals, I am berated with sighs and grunts of mock horror from those same girls at work.

The subject was just as aware of my presence as Dustin was, and no less photogenic in my humble opinion, particularly given that (and I'm guessing) he hadn't spent an hour "in makeup" before boarding the tube for the ride home.

Why then, if I was to explain this photo by describing him in completely false tones, "he's.... arrr... you know.... HIM...the bloke that starred as that detective in....ohh.... it's on the tip of my tongue....", would this picture take on a different light?

If ever you're travelling on the Jubilee line at the same time as this gentleman, ask him for his autograph, he's earned it!