‘Mike always had passion for photos’
MUCH-LOVED and respected Bridgend photographer Mike Stokes has died.
He passed away at Y Bwthyn in Bridgend following a brave fight against cancer.
His funeral is set to take place on Friday.
Mike took pictures throughout his working life, although it was not his full-time job, and was chairman of Bridgend and District Local History Society and vice-chairman of Bridgend Camera Club.
His brother Geoff said that Mike, who never married, was his own harshest critic, but always produced memorable work.
“Mike’s favourite expression after being on a photo shoot was, ‘I have got nothing in my camera, it’s all rubbish’.
“Then he would come home and produce beautiful photographs out of this so-called rubbish.”
Born and brought up in Bridgend with Geoff and sister Sheila, Mike attended Oldcastle and Summerhill schools.
He spent most of his working life looking after disabled children.
“He started training in Aberkenfig and then he went to the Jane Hodge Holiday Home in Cowbridge and from there he went to Wimbledon,” said Geoff.
Geoff said he had a passion for photography from a young age. “I don’t know when it started. I think it’s always been there, to be honest,” he said.
“His first camera was called a Perna. It was like a Box Brownie, very sluggish. It actually clunked when the shutter moved across. I had it after him.”
Last November Mike joined Bridgend history expert Natalie Murphy at the Old Bridgend Town photographic exhibition in Carnegie House.
Mike displayed pictures from Stokes & Sons Outfitters, which was on Caro- line Street from 1896-1980, as it had been opened by his great-grandfather Henry John Stokes.
At the time he spoke of why printed photographs still held such an appeal in the digital age.
“People like to see the photographs themselves,” he said. “They also like to have an interaction with other people that are knowledgeable about the photographs.”
Mike’s funeral takes place at Coychurch Crematorium at 1.15pm on Friday.