My first “proper” magazine shoot was for Time Out London. I honestly can’t remember how I landed the job — I think the photographer I was assisting at the time turned it down, and I offered to take it. It didn’t pay much, but it was still more than I earned assisting, and it was for a well-known publication, so I jumped at the chance.

The assignment was a quick portrait in Covent Garden of an up-and-coming comedian named Harry Enfield , who would go on to become a household name in the UK. He graciously bought me a coffee before we started, chatting for a few minutes — probably sensing how nervous I was.

The challenge was the deadline: the images needed to be at the magazine almost immediately after the shoot. London had plenty of great E6 labs at the time, and I could get a roll of slide film processed in about an hour, but even that wasn’t fast enough.

I decided to cover my bases. I shot Harry on 120 colour transparency film with my Hasselblad, and also used 35mm Polaroid Polapan instant black-and-white transparency film with my Nikon. Polapan was processed using a small handheld processor, which meant I could deliver images on the spot.

After the shoot, I went straight to the Time Out office and processed the Polapan film right on the photo editor’s desk. It had a nice contrast, though it wasn’t the sharpest, and it was notoriously fragile — prone to scratching if you so much as looked at it the wrong way. An hour later, I returned with the processed colour transparencies from the lab.

In the end, the magazine ran the black-and-white Polapan shot, which looked way more dynamic as a wide angle portrait.