Derek Pratt Photographer’s Portfolio

Waterways Photo Library exclusively features the photography of Derek Pratt and contains over 80,000 images ranging from the 1960s to the present day. The library covers all aspects of canals and navigable rivers throughout Britain, and is constantly being updated. It includes views of the landscape from meadows and mountains to industrial scenes of towns and cities in all seasons. Waterway architecture features bridges, aqueducts, locks, tunnels and all types of buildings from old mills to modern developments. Every kind of boat is here from commercial tankers, working canal boats to all types of pleasure craft. The selection of images on this site will give an impression of the diversity and quality of the collection.

Derek Pratt is a specialist photographer and writer about Britain's inland waterways. He began photographing the canals and rivers in the early 1960s and formed his Waterways Photo Library in 1968. He is the author of nine books on various aspects of the waterways and co-author with waterway historian Anthony Burton on another eight books. He helped launch a new monthly waterways magazine Canal Boat in June 1996 and is their main features writer and photographer.

Derek Pratt started on his photographic career after leaving school, when he became a photographer’s assistant in central London. It was during this period that his enthusiasm for Britain’s waterways began. At this time the canals’ long tradition of commercial carrying had come to an end and the leisure use of the navigable canals and rivers was being promoted. British Waterways decided to publish the first ever series of guides to the waterways and Derek’s employer was asked to take the photographs to illustrate the books. Derek accompanied him as an assistant on the first two books and became so keen on photographing the canals that his employer let him do the rest of the guide books on his own. These were Derek’s first professional photographic jobs, illustrating British Waterways’ first set of guides called the Blue Books, after the colour of their covers.

From then on, his employer left him to do any of the waterways jobs that came in. When, years later, the company went into administration, Derek bought the copyright of all the waterways photography from his employer, who gave him the negatives. After a trip to South Africa as a ship’s photographer, Derek decided to become self-employed.

The Waterways Book Collection by Derek Pratt

The Thames

A photographic journey from source to sea was published in 2008 and a second edition in 2012. It looks at Britain's most famous river from its humble beginning emerging from a hole at the edge of a field in Wiltshire to its maturity passing through London and eventually into the sea.

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Waterways Past and Present

Waterways Past and Present was published in 2006. It features canals and rivers throughout Britain. Contemporary photos are in colour while older and archival shots are reproduced in black and white. This book was updated and a second edition was published in 2015.

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Urban Waterways

Published in 2012, takes a contemporary look at rivers and canals in towns and cities throughout England occasionally comparing the changes that have taken place over the past 50 years.

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The Waterways Book Collection Contined

Londons Waterways

London's Waterways, published in 2010, looks at the River Thames in London and the network of canals that thread throughout the capital city. It also examines some of the lesser known rivers which are tributaries of the Thames.

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Great Waterways Journeys

Great Waterways Journeys describes a 780 mile long journey along the connected inland waterways of England beginning in leafy Surrey and ending in Bristol Docks via the hills of north Yorkshire. The industrial landscape of the West Midlands contrast with moorland scenery on the Pennine hills. Famous towns and cities like Oxford, Bath and Guildford are visited.

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Greasy Ocker

Greasy Ocker, published in 2005, was Derek Pratt's first novel. It tells the story of two young canal boatmen whose lives eventually follow different courses. One continues trying making a honest living as a boatman in the family tradition at a time when commercial carrying on the canals was in sharp decline. The other leaves the waterway life and becomes the associate of a London gangster. Their lives are dramatically reunited when both characters are involved in a famous train robbery.

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He began using a digital camera in 2006 and has now digitally photographed most of the waterway system. His collection of medium format and 35mm transparencies in colour, plus medium format black and white dating back to the 1960s, are being scanned and form part of the library.

Derek Pratt's extensive knowledge of Britain's inland waterways is reflected in his photography and his books. The most recent of these is the quartet Urban Waterways (2012), London's Waterways (2010), The Thames (2008) and Waterways Past and Present (2006). He also illustrated the trilogy Anatomy of Canals where his photography complemented the text of waterway historian Anthony Burton. His novel Greasy Ocker is a thriller set among the canals of London and the Black Country.

He approached British Waterways and they started commissioning him for their staff magazine and later for their publicity. He continued to explore the canals and rivers for his own interest and the subsequent photography formed the foundation of the Waterways Photo Library.

Apart from his waterway photography, Derek has worked as an industrial and commercial location photographer with clients in road transport, such as the National Freight Corporation, Freightliners, Pickfords and British Road Services. He travelled extensively throughout western Europe, taking photographs for brochures and publicity material for several international freight companies. He also illustrated publicity features for different companies in building trade magazines, as well as for plastics and rubber companies.

He worked with the publicity department for the Post Office, including a memorable commission photographing post office ‘buses’ in rural Wales, a transport service provided for the public by the Post Office.

Another of Derek’s specialities was portraits: he photographed executives for annual reports, when he often transformed the company boardroom into a studio! He also photographed several celebrities for the National Association of Boys’ Clubs annual poster: these included the late Sir Patrick Moore, Ronnie Barker and boxer, John Conteh.

Within the field of waterways, Derek’s photography has illustrated most of the top boat hire companies’ annual brochures. He also supplies firms with photos for calendars. He has been the main supplier of photographs for the Nicholson Waterway Guides since the first issue in the early 1970s. And he has undertaken photography for the Environment Agency and has a long association with British Waterways, now the Canal and River Trust.