I thought I'd post a few pictures in the context of their publications. It's always a bonus as a wire service photographer to see your work published well. We don't work with client editors or curators, our pictures go out to over 1000 publications and can wind up being used in many different forms. So, when you see your work presented nicely on a page it's a real bonus.
The first example is my first ever newspaper published picture from when I was aged 13.
My father worked for UPI and for many years I was fascinated not only with news pictures but with the way they were sent around the world on analogue machines like the 16S, I already had a thirst for news.
One day in June 1980 he passed a huge traffic accident on the motoroway very close to our house. Without hesitation he almost forced me on to the back of his motorbike to get there and capture the event. So off we went with my Zenith camera and 300mm lens I'd bought from Erith market for £15 only the week before. It wasn't too difficult to make the picture from a flyover looking right over the accident. A 300 was the perfect lens.
Once we got home he called the local (weekly) paper and they were luke-warm about the idea of a bunch of pix shot by a spotty school kid but they sent a photog to collect the film anyway. I remember him being quite surprised to be handed a roll of Kodak TRI-X. The next day he returned with orders to take my headshot as part of a centre page spread. I wasn't too pleased about that but I thought that if I let them shoot me then perhaps they will remember me when I try and get a job with them. Once he shot my pic he handed me £25 and 25 rolls of Tri-X as payment. Pretty good, I thought. That Friday the Chatham News came out, and I was over the moon with it - apart from my mug shot.
This picture is from Bosnia in 1995 when the Dayton Agreement was signed and the troops serving in Bosnia went from their UN mandate to NATO and so becoming IFOR. I was sent to Gornji Vakuf, the scene of some of the worst fighting during the conflict, to cover the British Army. At the time there were severe UK defense budget cuts and I had it on good authority that the MOD wanted as much media coverage as possible. As a result we got access to everything. Every day we were on helicopters flying somewhere to see troops. This picture was made when the Royal Navy painted their white UN helicopters with camouflage tiger stripes. They are lifting a 105mm gun to a position somewhere in the hills. The picture was used heavily, including page one of the Sunday Telegraph and inside the Sunday Times.
