I know when I first met Danny. I was a stressed out boardsie at People’s Photography who’d only agreed to do this 2 days beforehand and had all sorts of fun and games getting ready to try and flog some of my – I thought – fabulous photographs to the world at large. Boy did I have a lot to learn. I knew Valentia because you couldn’t not. But I hadn’t met him. He was, Al Higgins told me at the time, an awfully nice person. Al wasn’t lying. When I met Danny that day, he was sitting in a deckchair saying “oh I’m Valentia.” Wouldn’t have known him otherwise.
Danny took one of my all time favourite photographs. It blew my mind as soon as I saw it. He gave me a print of it following the boards.ie photography exhibition last year and everyone I know who’s seen it is similarly affected. You couldn’t argue with the talent. Amazing, amazing photographs.
But an amazing man too. The last time I saw him, a few weeks ago on a phototrip out to Trim, he was in great form. I’d missed him. And I talked to him at the weekend about possibly going to the balloons. It would have been a tall order for me – I was in Mayo for most of the weekend. But somehow…you felt it could be worth it. It was for him. The last I heard from him, he was slagging me on twitter. When I heard he had died, it came as an enormous shock to me. These things are not supposed to happen. You could add, not to Danny, but then, who should they happen to?
We – a number of his friends – went to Trim today where some of the hotair balloons were taking off again. I took the photo above with my iphone – didn’t have my camera with me. You can just about see a black flag flying on them if you look carefully. I got myself completely covered in mud this evening.
When you look at the tributes to Danny that are popping up around the place, on various weblogs, on boards.ie/photography, you get a sense of a great man and he was that. But more than anything, once you had met him, Danny was your friend. Not because he was a great photographer, or a terrific actor, or heavily, heavily involved in working for the good of his community. But because he was a lovely, lovely man. I will miss him for occasionally reminding me of obscure music I haven’t listened to in years, for reminding me that there are places to go in this country, and things I don’t often see.
Some tributes:
The photography community at boards.ie
I know I’ve missed out lots.
For some reason, this extract from Coronach is echoing through my mind:
HE is gone on the mountain, He is lost to the forest, Like a summer-dried fountain, When our need was the sorest. The font reappearing 5 From the raindrops shall borrow, But to us comes no cheering, To Duncan no morrow!
mooi, treasa. heel mooi.
Hartelijk dank, aafke.
Treasa, heartfelt words. Well put.
A great tribute and I think he would love that indeed.
Very nice kind words. In what we do, we often hear well spirited arguments over ‘great’ and ‘greatness’. You’ve used the word twice in the title, and I think that when all is said and done, those that knew him will be able to look on Danny and truly describe him as “great”.
By all accounts HE was an amazing individual on so many levels.
BTW, Loved this image when I saw it last night.
Talk soon.
Danny was my brother in law and indeed a lovely person and is sadly missed by all the Grimes family. He was great fun and a very interesting person. Its just not fair. Patricia