John Coplans

John Coplans had a career in reverse. He was 60 by the time he established himself as a photographer, having already had a long and active life as a curator, editor, writer, artist and decorator. A pioneer of selfportraiture, he took large format black-and-white close-ups of his bare body that sent ripples of shock, recognition and frequent praise through the international art world.

A major element in the fascination was an obsession with one of our few remaining taboos: the process of ageing and physical decrepitude. And with the anonymity of identity: in Coplans' words, "To remove all references to my current identity, I leave out my head." The blow-ups of sagging flesh, creased folds, odd protuberances and body hair of an old man become the documentary tale of the decline of Everyman.

Born in London, Coplans was pulled out of his English boarding school to join parents he no longer recognised in Johannesburg. He lived up to Mark Twain's observation about not letting schooling interfere with his education. His intermittent home life, and affinity with his doctor father, involved them in Sunday visits to art galleries after the family had returned to London; then there were his father's inventions and experiments in everything from redesigning toothpaste tubes to 3-D filmmaking. The boundaries between art and science were irrelevant - the external world was an eternal intrigue, ripe for exploration and exploitation