3-063-012 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

Portrait of RAF Sergeant Johnny Jay in civilian clothing, at RAF Iver Heath, Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, 1942-43. Johnny Jay was born in 1920 in Brixton, London. At fifteen he began his career as a photographer's apprentice. During the WW2 he served in the RAF's Film Production Unit at Pinewood Studios in the Stills Department, before being invalided out in 1944. He went on to a successful career in film, becoming one of Britain's top motion picture photographers, working on films such as The Rocky Horror Show, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Pinewood Studios - or RAF Iver Heath - was used as the base during the WW2 for the Royal Air Force Film Production Unit, the Crown Film Unit, and the Army Film and Photographic Unit. The studios were used to produce both films advocating the role of the armed forces in the war, and documentary films, recording the progress of the war. Dorothy 'Knicky' Chapman was posted to Pinewood Studios to serve as a WAAF with the RAF's Film Production Unit, working in the Stills Department. This photograph is one of a set compiled by Chapman, which document her time at Pinewood Studios. It is not clear which of the photographs in the set were taken by Chapman.