My mum breaking the rules with her passport: Normski’s best photograph

I didn't understand at the time was how transgressive this was. For her generation, you did not show your passport to anyone - let alone have it photographed'

One day when I was around 11, I had to take a day off school. I had asthma and felt rotten, but I also felt ashamed about not being well. Mum decided to take me out to cheer me up. She took me to an auction - it wasn't anything special, just one of those local things that would be advertised in the papers back in the day. She was hoping we might find a bike, probably just to stop me crying because everyone else had one and I felt left out.

We took a bus to the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster and arrived late. Almost everything had gone. There were no bikes left. I was despondent. Mum was gunning for anything to cheer this moany kid up when a Kodak Instamatic went up for sale. I wasn't convinced, but she persuaded me we should get it. By the time we'd got back home, it was an obsession - the best toy I'd ever received.

I didn't even take pictures at first. Mum said she wasn't going to buy me any more film, so I was terrified of wasting the few shots I had. But the camera lens became my way to frame and visualise the world. I built a baby darkroom in a cupboard and started printing from the age of 12. It changed my life.