When Bob ‘Mr Mummy’ Brier visited the Garstang Museum

Have you ever had that moment when you see a familiar face, but it takes a moment to kick in that it’s the TV you’ve seen them on?

That happened to me when a tour group from the US were booked in for a visit to the Garstang Museum in June 2017. As I was already in the museum photographing some amulets that day, I thought I’d pop up from the basement when they arrived to get a few photos for the museum.

As soon as I clapped eyes on their tour leader, I said to one of the museum staff, ‘Is that Bob Brier?’

‘Who?’

‘Bob Brier.’

‘…?’

‘…!’

Out came Google.

‘Ohhhhh. Yes.’

Bob ‘Mr Mummy’ Brier was in the house! I had to get some photos.

Bob is what you might call a ‘celebrity’ Egyptologist. Specialising in paleopathology (ancient diseases), he’s written best-selling books and has hosted several documentaries, including his own series, Mr Mummy, on National Geographic. He’s particularly well known for his experimental mummification of a man from Baltimore to try to understand the thought processes and logic behind the methods the ancient Egyptians used.

I introduced myself to Bob and asked his permission to take a few photos of their time in the Garstang. I jumped into photojournalist mode and documented the group as they explored the Garstang.

Documenting the tour

The group were shown around the museum and the Book of the Dead exhibition by assistant curator Elle and student volunteer Lauren.

Because the group were moving on to the World Museum after the Garstang, Ashley Cooke, the World Museum’s Egyptology curator also came and joined us.

Whilst there was some ‘official’ tour talk from Lauren and Elle about the exhibition and collection, there was also a lot of chat.

It was really quite the social event.

They were a lovely group of people, and really enjoyed their visit. Everyone was friendly and loved to geek-out over ancient Egypt. Nobody seemed fussed by me bobbing around with my camera.

Bob himself was friendly, passionate, humble and very approachable. He was also quite accommodating when I asked if I could get a photo of him with the Garstang mummy (thanks, Bob!).

Making photographic choices for documentary photography

What camera equipment did I use?

I kept things really simple: I used my Fujifilm X-T2 with the XF 16mm lens.

The lens is classed as wide-angle (it has a wide angle of view) and I chose to use it because some of the spaces in the Garstang are quite tight. Using it meant that even when everyone was packed in, I could still capture enough of the scene to tell the story.

Most of the photos I took at 1/60th of a second, some a little slower, with ISO between 800 and 1250.

I chose not to use a flash or any other external lighting because … well, in a situation like that, it’s just a bit rude.

Even though some of the lighting’s quite low in the museum, me shining lights in everyone’s faces would’ve distracted them from their tour, made them annoyed with me and spoiled those moments I love to capture.

This is where having a camera with good ISO capability and a lens with a wide maximum aperture comes in handy (this one goes down to f/1.4). It means I can use the ambient lighting which allows me as a photographer to fade into the background a little and get those really natural shots.

Documentary vs. posed shots

Documentary photography – capturing situations and people on the fly – is immense fun. I prefer not to get involved, photographically speaking; it’s about capturing people in the moment. No posing, no interrupting conversations, no trying to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time. It’s fleeting moments that tell a story about these people. I absolutely adore the photos I got from this day. Everyone’s so expressive and passionate and happy to be there.

I do like to get involved socially, however; I find that people are more relaxed about me and my camera if I chat a bit with them and show them I’m friendly and unintimidating. I also enjoy the social aspect; it’s not just about taking the photos, it’s also about meeting different people with different lives, finding out a bit about each other, our otherwise-separate lives crossing paths for just a brief moment.

I broke away from the documentary style just once, to get that photo of Bob with the Garstang Mummy. Although Bob wasn’t really sure why I wanted to take the photo (as I said: humble), it was an opportunity I just didn’t want to miss.

Black and white or colour photos?

Why did I choose to use black and white for these photos? I took all these photos as RAW files – the digital equivalent of a negative (sort of – RAW files hold all the raw data the camera catches, which includes the colour).

So, if I had colour versions there, why the moody monochrome? After all, ancient Egyptian artefacts are packed with amazing colours.

Well, that’s kind of the thing, really. If I showed you these photos in colour, they would be all about the colour. Sometimes, colour can be too distracting. The colour makes the photos about the clothes the people are wearing, about the artefacts in the background and about the lights. Which is fine when I’m photographing artefacts or an exhibition itself, or the colour is one of the central parts of the scene. For these reasons, I chose to work in colour when I photographed Edge Conservation working on some of the Garstang’s Predynastic ceramics for the Before Egypt exhibition.

But, not this time.

When I take the colour out, the photo then becomes all about the people themselves and the story they tell. And that’s what these photos are about. They’re about Bob, about the lovely people he brought with him, about Elle and about Lauren. Which is what I want you to see. The museum and the artefacts are a mere backdrop to the story.

And I hope you agree.

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With gratitude and love,

Julia

Unless otherwise credited, all photos in this post are © Julia Thorne. If you’d like to use any of my photos in a lecture, presentation or blog post, please don’t just take them; drop me an email via my contact page. If you share them on social media, please link back to this site or to one of my social media accounts. Thanks!