Photographs offer fresh insight into image-conscious Larkin

The poet Philip Larkin once described himself as looking like "an egg sculpted in lard, with goggles on".

But the making of a rare arts programme – photographs from which have gone on display for the first time – show he took great care with his image.

Pictures of Larkin, visiting the docks in his trademark Macintosh and on the ferry with Sir John Betjeman, were snapped by Anne James, a budding photographer who was working as director's assistant on the 1964 film, which was part of the Monitor series.

The 30 photos were curated by Jim Orwin and Prof Graham Chesters. "It was the one and only documentary he appeared in," said Mr Orwin.

"That and his 1956 interview with John Shakespeare allowed Larkin to shape and inform the public persona he wanted to project and it's an image that remains largely intact 25 years after his death.

"Larkin's contribution to the film was considerable from suggesting possible filming locations to providing researchers with copious notes on himself and Hull.

"He was keen to have some control over how people viewed him and regarded the programme as a resource he could direct future enquirers towards."

The images, on show at the Hull University's Middleton Hall building until July 30, are part of the Larkin25 festival, which ratchets up another notch today with the unveiling of 40 individually-decorated toads throughout the city. The designs have been created in honour of his poems, Toads and Toads Revisited.

Programme director Emily Penn said the photos showed the younger Larkin at the peak of his powers and looking his "tall and rangy best".

She said: "They are a wonderful evocation of Hull and capture parts of the city that don't exist any more. There are some lovely informal shots of him and Betjeman chatting together in Larkin's rooms. They are very informal but have a real artistic quality to them."