Looking back, Mark Chilvers says he thought the ghost train he put his then six-year-old son Louie on would be a “Scooby-Doo level of scary”. The pair were at a London funfair in the early summer of 2016 when they bumped into Louie’s school friend Zavian and his mum.
“Zavian was pestering to go on the ghost train, and my son tagged along with the idea. We watched other young kids getting on the cars, and relented.”
Louie and Zavian trundled in with expressions of “calm curiosity”, Chilvers recalls. Outside, their parents continued to chat, wondering aloud what was inside and how long the boys might be.
“I decided to set up my phone, a Samsung S7, to capture them exiting. I anticipated the technical visuals, particularly framing the scary painted face to the left. But when the boys materialised looking absolutely terrified, I realised it wasn’t my best parenting decision of the year.”
With his professional photographer head on, Chilvers liked how the purple brickwork, and the boys’ blue and red jackets made up a vibrant colour palette. No tweaks or edits were needed. His parenting head, however, had other priorities. Once the sheepish parents and shaken kids parted, Chilvers sought a counterbalance. “I plonked him straight on to an elephant merry-go-round for toddlers. It was the gentlest ride I could find.”
