Consequently, the sustained friendship and steady professional relations that the two maintained had changed his perception of the singer. He knew him well, and saw him frequently -an intimacy with Elton John which of course was foreign to me. So Robert knew that all he needed to do to start me up, was to mention on the phone "Hey, I saw Elton yesterday and I told him about you and he said hello to you", or "Elton is in Australia at the moment, and when he's coming back, he has to go back to the studio for his next album”. The result was that I would immediately bombard Robert with heated questions.

When consulted, Elton John immediately gave Robert his agreement, something quite extraordinary when retrospectively one measures the obligations and activities around the world of an artist who, at the time, had by far surpassed in notoriety and in quantity of sold LP copies the Beatles’ own record sales and their outputs' achievements…
So I came to London and met Elton John in the offices of Rocket Records (which at the time had moved, emigrating from North Audley Street to some much larger premises, down the same street that, at this level, changed its name and became South Audley Street). I spent a whole morning photographing Elton John from all angles. Whenever seeing these photographs since then, I have always measured the value of the treasure that Elton John presented me with that day. And also the treasures of patience that he displayed on that occasion.

However, when my pictures were presented to my teachers and fellow students at my school, my disappointment was paramount : no one recognized Elton John, nobody could believe that I knew him, and that the man whom I had portrayed was the famous bespectacled rock star... Indeed, the man portrayed in my pictures wore no glasses.
Actually, around the late 70s Elton John had started wearing contact lenses. This explained that.