Memories of the late Eamonn McCabe

Memories of the late Eamonn McCabe

When the Press Photographers Association (PPA) first got together it wasn’t too promising. Only a few of the press photographers invited from each national newspaper bothered to show. It was a small gathering around a long table that gently rattled in the smoky gloom of a club called Duffers, nestling as it did beneath the railway arches that led trains into Farringdon station. It was early 1984, and the boys had gathered to hear our first Chairman and Founder outline his plans to create something new to represent the very best of press photography in books, exhibitions; above all to celebrate press photography at its very best.

Photo: Brian Harris. The first ever meeting of the PPA at Duffers Club in 1984. Eamonn McCabe is third from the right.

Some thought it was simply a vanity project for just one guy and his mates, and they stayed away. Although it was certainly to be elite, the PPA was not to be elitist. Around that table the photographers came from as diverse publications as The Guardian, The Standard, The Times and The Sun. But only one of those present was a sports photographer. And that was Eamonn McCabe.

Back in 1984, Eamonn was recognised as one of the very best sports photographers of his generation. He had won the prestigious Sports Photographer of the Year award four times and dominated the pages of ‘The Observer’.  John Downing, our Founder and first Chair, was keen to have Eamonn from the very start. But the truth was that there was a traditional strong line between ‘news’ and ‘sport’ on newspapers that filled into our profession, and John was determined to break that down, to represent the very best of sport alongside the very best of news in the newly formed PPA. There was no better man to lead that with his sports colleagues than Eamonn.

Within a year, the Association had taken off, and the first PPA Exhibition was officially opened by Princess Michael of Kent. Eamonn’s extraordinary work, often showing the preparation and behind the scenes of great sportsmen preparing for competition, was a highlight of the exhibition. But at the very core of what the PPA was about from the start was encouraging younger photographers to get involved and aim high. And a number found their work up there, in pride of place, with the very finest photographers working in Fleet Street at the first PPA exhibition.

I can vouch for that, as we now launch our Associate Member scheme, because I was one of those photographers back in ‘84, just started working at Sport and General Press Agency, and unsure whether to enter my pictures of tennis and, of all things, kayaking, to an exhibition that would have John’s extraordinary pictures from Afghanistan, and Eamonn’s now famous beautiful sports images from table tennis and boxing, the latter showing a gloved hand being prepared for the fight. Where did I fit in all this greatness?

At one late night PPA meeting at Duffers, Eamonn pulled me to one side, and in a very quiet casual almost laid back manner told me he liked my pictures very much, and that he would take them to the judging panel. So it was, a month or so later at the Barbican, a moment of immense pride to stand there beside my prints, 12×16, printed by the legendary Larry Bartlett framed on the wall, in my early twenties, as the royal party walked round with John escorting the Princess.

I can’t say I knew Eamonn well, more to say ‘Hi to’ and perhaps call occasionally, but the more people I’ve spoken to, the more I get the impression that many people knew him, knew his work, knew about his incredible career, but didn’t really know him at all. He had, after all, made the rare transfer from award winning sports photographer, to picture editor on The Guardian, and then finally, back to photography, on the features pages specialising in portraits.

Believe me here, I know from personal experience that going from the road to the desk is not easy. It is not unlike running an exhibition of photography. To those whose images you select and show prominently, you are brilliant as an editor, either for an exhibition or the paper that day, but to those whose pictures don’t make the cut, you’re just a patsy, or worse. Much worse.

As Brian Harris remembers, “Truth is that Eamonn proved to be quite a divisive figure on the desk, championed by some, and upsetting others.  He had been charged with making changes at The Guardian to counteract the new kid on the street ‘The Independent’, so there were bound to be some that were going to be unhappy. When later he left and went back to work as a photographer, staying with the paper whose desk he had run, doing portraits, some found that all quite challenging.”

But Eamonn, in his portraiture work, has left an impressive legacy of his imagery preserved for perpetuity at the National Portrait Gallery. Not many picture editors have achieved that.

So how to remember Eamonn McCabe? Dillon Bryden suggests that many have the same story as I have, and Dillon has, that Eamonn supported and encouraged them when they first started, as Dillon recalls, “being genuinely enthusiastic about younger photographers getting on with it and being able to do their own thing as photographers.”

While still at school Dillon joined a short course, The Bradford City Project run by Eamonn. There he found all sorts of photographers, though as Dillon remembers, “I was by far the youngest. At the end of the day I just wanted to go on do something else, I didn’t want it to end. We had done some landscapes, some football, some street photography, and everyone was off to their hotels for the night. I didn’t want to stop. I asked what’s next.  Eamonn suggested I head off to photograph the night racing at the speedway. And then he just handed over his Nikkor 400 3.5 . I couldn’t believe it, the ultimate lens, way beyond anything I could afford!”

Two weeks later, and leaving school for good, Dillon chased up Eamonn to see if he could get some work experience on The Guardian. Within a short time, Dillon found himself in Farringdon Road, having a great time, lots of shows in the paper, and was ready for that staff job. Hugely disappointed that wasn’t going to happen, Eamonn told Dillon ‘to keep in touch’ but strongly advised him to go to college, advise Dillon has never regretted following.

“Eamonn was like a godfather to me, gentle, calm, instructional. If he disagreed with you, he’d step back a little. He was a huge influence on my life and career. Put it this way, everyone knows Eamonn McCabe, and unless you’re a Guardian staffer of the late 80s, who knows who was The Guardian picture editor before Eamonn?”

Tim Bishop

Sally Soames 1937-2019

Sally Soames and other members of the Press Photographers Association at their exhibition at The Barbican Centre in London. ©Brian Harris

Sally Soames and fellow members of The Press Photographers Association (which became The BPPA) at their first London exhibition at The Barbican. Photo ©Brian Harris.

Sally Soames who worked as a photographer for The Sunday Times for more than three decades died aged 82 at her home in north London on the 5th of October 2019.

Sally, like many of her generation had no formal training as a photographer, starting out by winning a photography competition run by a London evening paper. She was noticed by the Observer where she contributed work during the 1960’s before being taken onto the Sunday Times before the decade was out. She stayed on her beloved paper for more than 32 years working for esteemed editor Harry Evans and design maestro Edwin Taylor, reluctantly retiring due to problems with her knees and as black and white analogue film photography gave way to colour and subsequently digital image making.

Sally told me in the early 90’s that she was scouring London and buying up all the Nikon FM2 film cameras that she could find once she had been told that her favourite camera wasn’t going to be made anymore. I don’t think Sally and modern digital technology would have got on together, so a good time to call it a day.

Sally was a pure image maker, the eyes were everything, get the eyes sharp and you will have your reader, she said to me once. She would talk her subject into submission if he or she proved to be reluctant to have their photograph taken. She charmed and cajoled, often writing to her subject in advance of the photography session as well as reading their work if an author, or watching their films or plays if an actor. She saw herself and her work as the equal of the writer and the written word when covering an interview, not for Sally the three minute photo-op session dictated by a hovering PR, which is now seen to be the norm, Sally demanded and got as much time as she needed to produce her work.

Although Sally did specialise in portrait work for the paper, producing some of the most eye catching imagery to grace the pages of any newspaper in the land she was also a dab hand on the political scene. I personally worked alongside her on many occasions, Sally on the ST and myself on The Times at many a political conference during the 70’s through the 80’s. I was always surprised to see her visual summation of the week in her paper, normally a quiet reflective moment caught without fuss, just a fine quality image that would make you think a while.

I also worked alongside Sally in Israel whilst covering a general election in June 1981 featuring Menachem Begin and Moshe Dyan, both of whom she had entré to with one phone call. Her portrait of General Dyan on the Golan Heights ranks, IMHO, as one of her finest images. She introduced me around to those that mattered and arranged passes and some access to this then relative green horn, but that was just so typical of Sally, she would help just about anyone but especially new guys and gals on the block…there is a long line of news photographers working now who all owe Sally a great debt of personal gratitude, myself included.

 She had a heart felt affinity with Israel, being born Jewish (born Winkleman), and when based there during the Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab States led by Egypt and Syria in October 1973 she was recalled by Kelvin Brodie her Sunday Times picture editor (and a former top flight news photographer) as it was deemed by the ST management as being too dangerous for Sally to stay after the death of ST correspondent Nick Tomalin. The group of Arab commandos who stormed the beach outside her Tel Aviv beach front hotel made the point more emphatically. She returned to Israel a week later to cover the km101 peace talks.

Sally may have been slight of frame and stature but she was strong and a fighter…Sally never ever gave up, she always found a way to achieve what she wanted, with a gushing smile, a hand hold, a squeeze and it must be said a fair bit of feminine schmoozing…Sally really was one of those unique individuals who was a friend to many, a mentor to many more and a bloody good photographer…oh, and a really nice woman. RIP Sally.

Brian Harris © 2019

Keith Morris 1958-2019

HAY-ON-WYE, WALES - JUNE 1: during the 2019 Hay Festival on June 1, 2019 in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)

Photographer Keith Morris during the 2019 Hay Festival on June 1, 2019 in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. Photo © David Levenson/Getty Images.

Tragic news. The day after Keith was reported missing, a body was found in the sea, near Aberystwyth.

Many would know his byline, but fewer would have met the man. I saw him a couple of times a year, and my memory is of not just a very talented photographer, but a mate who was always laughing. He really did have that joie de vivre that some people are gifted with. Rarely travelling outside of Aberystwyth, he nevertheless had pictures published in the national papers nearly every week via Alamy and LNP. His ‘murmurations of starlings over the pier in the sunset’ were a staple of most papers. 

Based for nearly his whole career on the west coast of Wales in Aberystwyth, Keith made a living photographing the local community and all of it’s activities. What made him special though, was his ability to see a picture that was of local interest, and transcend it into an image that the national press would want to use. He was an incredibly hard working freelance, but was happy to share his knowledge with others, who wanted to learn the secrets of successful stock photography.

Almost uniquely he made a great success of his career without ever feeling the need to travel far from his home town. His enthusiasm knew no bounds, night after night he would return to the same locations, to capture variants on his famous sunset over the pier pictures. A prolific operator, he has over 25,000 pictures on Alamy.

After his death, dozens of tributes have appeared on social media from those he had photographed in the town. It seems everybody in Aber’ knew him.

I first got to know his work well during the great storms of 2013, when his weather pictures made the front pages day after day. Ironically, it seems that the great waves that he captured in all their glory, were what claimed him in the end.

Keith leaves a wife Gilly, two daughters, and a grandson.

DAVID LEVENSON, 9th October 2019