I imagined John Blanke as anything I wanted him to be. I suspect he needed to be (and was) “twice as good” as his fellow trumpeters, doing the same job and not afraid to say it. This would explain what must have been seen as sheer audacity if not impudence to approach the King for greater wages. 

Just over 500 years later we are re-imagining him from our contemporary perspective.
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For me he foreshadows the coolness of jazz trumpeters half a millennium later; he is sharp (excuse the pun) and always, always aware of what may be coming around the corner. 

Dave Lewis
Photographer