“Monk & Redhead” Michael Joseph, Essex, 1960s Original darkroom print, signed A candlelit chamber, a monk with a goblet, and beside him — a red-haired woman, half in laughter, half in thought. Between them, a spark of theatre — part confession, part seduction, part mischief born from a photographer’s delight in human absurdity. Monk & Redhead captures Michael Joseph’s instinct for the finely balanced dance between drama and humour. He frames it like a painter of another century — a chiaroscuro study of flesh and fabric, wine and shadow — but with a distinctly 1960s irreverence bubbling beneath the surface. It could be a scene from a lost film, a moral play reimagined through the lens of Swinging London. The monk, a figure of appetite; the woman, his mirror and muse. The table behind them overflows with fruit, bread, and books — a still life of excess and temptation, shot through with knowing laughter. This is Joseph at his most theatrical, yet most human — his ability to find intimacy even in the absurd was what made him one of the defining visual storytellers of postwar Britain. While his Beggars Banquet session would later explode with noise, anarchy, and legend, this earlier work shows the same instinct — the blending of beauty, satire, and symbolism — but played at a lower, candlelit register. Printed in the 1960s, this original darkroom print holds the warmth and tonality that only hand-developed silver gelatin can achieve — the light blooming softly across skin and fabric, the shadows holding their own quiet secrets. Preserved by the artist’s daughter, this rare photograph offers not just a glimpse into Joseph’s creative world, but an invitation to enjoy the playfulness that ran through it. Mount size 50cm high by 40cm wide — to be carefully wrapped and swiftly dispatched, with the same care and devotion given to all original prints from the Michael Joseph archive.