Roger Bamber – Out of the Ordinary

Back in the early eighties Nikon had decided to consult press photographers how to improve their flagship F3 camera for news work. Modifications included a hot shoe, covered shutter release, a stop on the film rewind to create the F3P. But at first only the ‘Nikon Favoured’ could lay their hands on one, and those so honoured would flourish their cameras at every photocall. Rare and special maybe, but most exclusive news camera of them all was The Gold Nikon.

Stuck on a more than usually pointless doorstep of a bleak moor in the aptly named ‘Dark Peak’ of the Pennines thanks to a tip off to The Sun that evil Myra Hindley, would take police to the buried body of one of her child victims meant days of tedium for The Sun team with Roger Bamber. As the days turned into weeks, Roger passed the time meticulously chipping the black paint off his elderly battered Nikon F, revealing the solid brass body underneath. And hence was born, with a little later help from Brasso, Roger’s unique Gold Nikon.

Back in 1963, and at just 19, Roger decided he would try his luck with the then best picture paper in the Street. Heading to the forbidding Daily Express building, he found the picture editor was busy, but the chief photographer Terry Fincher gave out some timely advice: Roger had a good folio, but there were 38 staffers on the Express as well as many freelances. Better to try the Mail. Round Carmelite House went Rogers’ book, to Arts, Sport, Features, News, and after two hours to his astonishment he was offered a job. Roger’s long career in Fleet Street had begun.

Bob Aylott remembers “I first met Roger back in 1967 when I joined Keystone. Micky Webb was the picture editor and he advised me that if I stood near Bamber or Fincher I’d never miss anything!”

When The Sun launched in late 1969, Roger was there on the first day, working alongside such legends as Beverly Goodway, who went first from football to studio ‘glamour’ on Page 3, and Tony Prime who later went to The Observer, being imprisoned by the Argentinians during the Falklands.

In 1989, after nineteen years on The Sun and winning ‘News Photograph of the Year’ twice, Roger made the move to freelance, and basing himself in Brighton, the city he had lived since 1973. He quickly built a reputation at a very different paper, The Guardian, with his mix of humour and creating something special out of the ordinary, whether that was transforming an old battered camera body, or creating a magic photograph from a simple Punch and Judy tent on the beach. Roger’s distinctive style then won him ‘Ilford Press Photographer of the Year’ in 1992, making a nonsense out of the so-called divide between the ‘redtops’ and the ‘heavies’. Roger strode across them both.

Roger first met Guardian staffer Denis Thorpe covering the investiture of Prince Charles in 1969 at Caernarfon Castle. They took their positions on a high scaffold tower early for the ceremony with firm instructions to stay put.

“I can’t really remember what we did when ‘nature called’, we were stuck up there together for hours, forbidden to move!” said Denis.

In the nineties, Roger and Denis having both once worked on the Mail, now found themselves working on the same newspaper again, The Guardian.

Denis recalls “Roger had an irresistible charm. He could persuade anyone to do anything. We had a very different way of working, but I guess we formed a mutual admiration society. I observed the surreal moments of ordinary things and Roger created wonderful pictures out of the ordinary. His pictures were like theatre.”

For Roger, Brighton beach became his studio, and his creative eye saw the potential to shoot striking pictures in the most ordinary scenes, winning huge shows time and time again from a perfect mirror reflection of the Brighton Pavilion, to striking images of his beloved steam trains, Roger showed that he could win space in the busy news agenda without heading to war zones, or winning favour on a Royal Rota.

What do I remember of the tall slim man sporting the trademark white trousers, always atop the tallest ladder in the pen? That above all Roger Bamber was the friendliest press photographer you could ever meet. He would talk to anyone, including this young ambitious local London weekly snapper hoping to ditch his Pentax for Nikon, and work in Fleet Street alongside the finest news photographers in the world. Roger told me that he’d soon see me dropping my film into the darkroom. And he was right, later when I joined The Times, within months we were sharing the same darkroom at Wapping, and Roger greeted this very ‘wet behind the ears’ new boy like an old friend.

Roger never really retired, his images recently gracing the cans of the local Brighton brewery ‘Unbarred’, driving higher sales. Next year, Spring 2023, to coincide with the launch of his book ‘Out of the Ordinary’, the Brighton Pavilion will host a retrospective exhibition both of his photography and his life. They’ll not only be his most celebrated pictures, but amongst press passes, his Rollie, cuttings, portfolios, Roger’s widow Shan Lancaster plans to polish up The Gold Nikon to join the display.’