AP Awards 2021: The Chris Cheesman Award
February 19, 2021
The Chris Cheesman Memorial Award was inaugurated in 2017 in memory of AP’s former News Editor, who died in 2016. It is given to someone in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the UK photography industry.
This year’s recipient is Richard Caplan, who recently retired as the owner of Leica and Hasselblad specialist, Richard Caplan Photographic in London. ‘It has been wonderful to serve generations of photographers, often in the same family – parents, children, grandchildren,’ said Richard. ‘I wanted to produce a shop like Wallace Heaton, where I started working in 1961, and make service the biggest priority.’
London Leica specialist to retire after 60 years: closing-down sale
December 15, 2020
Richard Caplan Photographic, a well-established independent Leica and Hasselblad specialist just off Trafalgar Square, is sadly closing for good after 25 years. Richard himself has been in the camera retail business since 1961, so we caught up for a chat (as well as revealing some of the great closing-down offers for Leica and Hasselblad fans)
Richard Caplan. Picture credit: Eva Palazuelos
What was your first job in this business?
I started off working at Wallace Heaton [a well-known retailer which sold out to Dixons in 1972 – Ed.] in Bond Street in 1961. It was my first job. I was always interested in photography, as my father was an optician. Back in the 1930s, opticians sold photographic equipment too, as it was all about optics. That tempted me to go into the camera business.