“Are you going to Margate?” messaged Ben. After not seeing each other for some years, Ben had invited me to a private viewing during Frieze week and now it looked as though our paths would cross again because my answer was an emphatic “Yes”. Seconds later, my phone pinged again as he forwarded me a series of old photographs. Even back then, 25 years ago, before people had camera phones, Ben had been the one documenting the moment with the aid of disposable film cameras. And here they were, pictures from the London launch party of Counter Editions, the now celebrated publisher of limited-edition artworks. I am not sure that I was sporting my best outfit but there I am looking a little goofy standing alongside artist Tracey Emin and photographer Johnnie Shand Kydd. A fleeting moment captured on film. As I stared at those pictures and thought of that day, the time came into focus.

Back then I used to go and see my hairdresser in a rickety Georgian building in Denmark Street, London’s Tin Pan Alley. James, the man with the scissors, had a room on the first floor and liked the fact that the only people who came had made an appointment, had been vetted. He’d previously had two salons and a product range but had tired of the staff and what he called “tyre-kickers”, people who poked their heads into the shop and then walked off grumpily when they heard his prices. I learned to put aside ample time for a haircut as sometimes James would want to have a beer first and show me a book he had found. We became and still are friends.

Ben – curator, art commissioner, clever clogs – had the office next door and would often sit on the sofa while I had my haircut, giving me updates on the art world, telling me what I needed to see. It was hair salon as artists’ salon.

One day, Ben told me that he was helping out on a project that was going to shake up the world of artists’ multiples (think etchings sold by fusty Mayfair galleries). Two of its founders, Carl Freedman and Matthew Slotover, wanted to work with the likes of Tracey Emin, Christopher Wool and Gary Hume to produce affordable yet high-quality numbered editions. I was an editor at The Independent newspaper at the time and he thought that we would be a good partner. We were. Over the coming months we profiled the artists and offered readers a chance to buy the works. Soon my house began to feature editions from Gary Hume, Rachel Whiteread, Sam Taylor-Johnson and Tracey Emin (all still in situ).

The gallery, now solely owned by Carl (Matthew did OK – he co-founded Frieze art fair among many other ventures), moved from London some years ago to Margate, where it now prints all the works. To mark its 25th anniversary last Saturday, Counter Editions launched a monograph and exhibition of key works from across the years. There was a celebratory lunch in its converted factory.

As a journalist you are always a bit of an observer, a bit of an outsider. But there was a point, when I was standing with Ben, Carl, Matthew and gallerist Kate MacGarry, who I had also first met at the start of Counter Editions, that I felt a flicker of pride that I’d lent a helping hand back then and also that I have met so many good people across the arc of my career.

I came back to London with Ben and, as the train rattled through the countryside, we talked about the past and present. We charted the paths that our lives had taken, recounted our histories, diversions taken, peaks reached and, like hikers unfolding maps, revealed the contours of experience that make us who we are.

To read more of Andrew’s columns, click here.