War veteran Ernie Taylor suffers from post-traumatic stress (PTSD) and has been left partially paralysed by a stroke – but he won’t let anything stop him taking beautiful photographs.
The Hackney man joined the Light Infantry aged just 15 in the 1970s and was sent to Northern Ireland at the peak of political violence in the region. His experiences there left him plagued by sleepless nights and flashbacks.
A keen photographer, after leaving the army he travelled as far afield as Sierra Leone and Yugoslavia documenting the world around him.
But in 2007, shortly after his 50th birthday, he suffered a stroke triggered by a brain tumour and lost the use of his left arm and one eye, as well as suffering severe memory loss.
He says: “I sleep with one eye open [because of PTSD]. I was up at 1am this morning. Things never got better, but I learnt to cope with shell shock back in the early 70s.
“Then I had a stroke and lost all my memory. The first things that came back to me were the horrors from Belfast thirty years ago.”
Ernie was injured in Ireland in 1974 by a milk-churn bomb. Shortly afterwards he narrowly escaped death in a burning house after attempting to rescue two children.
“I went into that house knowing I could die. I was luckily saved when the rest of the guys came and got me out,” he says.
Tragedy struck again a year and a half ago when his nephew was killed in Afghanistan while serving in the 2nd Battalion the Rifles, an infantry regiment.
Ernie says: “Stephen was a brilliant kid. I used to bounce him on my knee. He was a page boy at my wedding and one of my favourite nephews.”
The 56-year-old, who celebrated his birthday two weeks ago, sees photography as a way to relax.
“I can only take a picture with my right hand, my left hand is paralysed. I balance the camera on my scooter or the back of my left hand. I can move my arm up and down, but can’t move it forward and whatever I touch with it I can’t feel.”
Ernie has taken thousands of pictures of Hackney, getting up at dawn to walk down to Regent’s Canal, then up through the docklands and around London Fields.
However, this Christmas he left the borough after 15 years, chased out by a return of his PTSD triggered by the August riots.
Ernie says: “The London riots took me directly back to Belfast. I did take some photos of the streets – there are some I took of Clarence Road where the riots started. I went out at about 5am. There were only a few people about and I went down on my scooter because I think you should try and face your demons. But I need a peaceful life now.”
He has since moved to Suffolk to enjoy a quieter life.
“Just before I left Hackney I started to go across to the Olympics complex. I found that interesting, but security kept trying to keep me out.”
Ernie has taken over 30,000 pictures, but he’s still chasing new sights. “I still get a buzz when I get a good shot.”
“I like taking photographs of people, but they can get a wee bit upset although it is perfectly legal to do it. I wouldn’t take a picture of anyone walking down the street if they weren’t doing something unusual.
“If they scratch their bum that’s when you take the picture, because there is humour in life. You’ve got to be able to capture it; you don’t have be a good photographer to take nice photos, but you have to be original and different.”
Ernie would love to put on an exhibition, but can’t afford it because he lives off disability benefits. He has previously exhibited his work in a wine bar at Broadway market.
The East End man says he won’t be coming back to Hackney because he is “slowing down” and worries about coping with the pace of life.
Still, given the chance he would go back to the battlefield in a second. “I always wanted to be a soldier, and if I was still fit I would be in there. It is hard but if I had the choice I would do it all over again. I gave my oath of allegiance to the Queen and I stand by it.”
As for his photography, Ernie vows: “I will keep going as long as I can.”
