CAPTURING a moment in time that is too quick to register with the human eye is the aim of the Journal's freelance photographer who provides many of the newspaper's photos.

Spencer Mulholland was our guest on the Journal ‘On Point’ podcast and talked about his passion for photography, history and about the city. 

He said: “I love Salisbury and I want to show it at its best. I know about its history, I study it, and I can talk about it, and can share the history with my photography too.”

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Taking photographs for a living is not always a glamorous role.

Spencer said: "It can be me crawling in dirty dusty holes. I was on the top of Stobie's fish and chip shop in the roof space and was pulling myself along as there is not enough room to stand up in there. I was pulling myself through the bird poo and there is a little door at the front where I could stand up and could take photos.  

“The amazing thing in there is that unfortunately, Stobies has had issues with fire damage in the past, it has all the scars of those times, all the brickwork and burn marks. It’s all those things I find fascinating.

“I was in Chas H Baker; I was invited up by the manager. They’d recently discovered an old bedroom that had been sealed up. They’d had a leak in the roof and had to investigate water damage. They didn’t know. If you stand by the Red Lion and look at the roof and you can just about see it.“

Photography is more than just taking a quick snapshot. For Spencer, it is about the layers of photography, putting something in the foreground, background and in middle distance.

He said: “If you can add different layers to the photo, it’s more interesting.”

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Spencer’s first camera was an old Panasonic.

He said: "It was nothing flashy. I think the one moment that got me was when I took a photo of my youngest son leaping into a puddle with all the stones and water coming out. I caught that moment. It started me off.

“The thing about photography, is you are able to capture a moment you can’t see with the naked-eyed, you can see, it but it’s too quick. You can’t register it, just too fast.”

“We are just custodians of Salisbury. I want to capture moments now, but in the future, it will tell everything. It will tell a story….the cars, the clothes, the shops, everything about that image will be interesting in 100 years' time.”

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Spencer has captured many important moments which have been published in the Salisbury Journal over the years.

He said: “When I was working alongside the reporters during the Salisbury poisonings, obviously, there was a human tragedy of people losing their lives, but in that context, I was photographing a job at Five Rivers and I saw an air ambulance and followed it.

“Little did I know at the time, it was related to the Salisbury poisonings. I was one of the photographers who photographed everything at the time, and it should never be forgotten.”

Spencer’s photography is now being saved in the archive of the Salisbury Museum.

He said: “I just think it’s an incredible thrill. I’ll die a happy man now. That’s all I wanted from the start to know that my photography will be looked at in the future. The photos will go into the archive at the Guildhall too. That is just the best for me."

Listen to the whole interview with Spencer Mulholland here.