Shot Of The Week (gone, forgotten, remembered)

How could I of forgotten Jeanloup Sieff He was possibly the biggest influence for me early on when I was printing in my blacked out bedroom with a safe light made from an old Brill Cream pot. I just loved the heavy contrasty prints and tried whenever possible to use my grade 4 Agfa Record Rapid to make my prints just like his. Most of my printing skills developed (excuse the pun) from those days in my little flowery bedroom on an enlarger made from a 40 watt bulb and a large bake bean tin (I kid you not).
Jeanloup Sieff was a bigger influence than Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Bill Brant, Irving Penn and all the other old boys. Maybe it was because Sieff's books where in the local library and the others were not, or maybe Sieff just struck a cord. I remember no one else liking him much, but what did my parents and thirteen year old friends know....
When I think back now I remember how I used to want to be just like Jeanloup. I did have a very romantic notion of him and imagined myself smoking cigarettes and telling the ladies how beautiful they are in a husky French accent...
I have claimed the image at the top (the cafe) as Shot Of The Week and it remains in my top ten favorite images to this day.
Top ten favorite images, now theres an idea..