The Press Photo History Project

Great news here – this site has been listed on the British Library’s UK Web Archive.
We were contacted last year by the British Library archiving team who had identified the site as a useful resource.
The Press Photo History project is currently mapping the photo agencies and photographers of Fleet Street, with a long term plan to map all press photo agencies throughout the world.
More on the British Library project here webarchive.org.uk

Hi Will

I’ve just discovered your website and project – what a great idea!

I wonder if you can help me trace the copyright owner of Sidney Bishop who is listed on your website. We have an image in our archive collection that we would like to use but I have had no luck tracing the company. The full details are Sidney Bishop Studio 4 New Bridge Street Fleet St EC4. Do you have any further information to that which is on your website?

Many thanks
Becky
Beck Webster – Archivist at the Institute of Education, University of London

if you hold the copyright to this collection please get in touch: will@pressphotohistory.com

Hi Will,,
I have found some old glass negatives which say they are Pool. Some have REU/POOL – obviously Reuters, but some have IME/POOL.
Have you any idea who or what was IME?

Thanks in advance

Mike Hollingshead
Research Supervisor
AP Images

if you have an info on IME please email will@pressphotohistory.com

PPHP has put Bill Rose and the grandson of Jim Archer together following his request for information last year….

The email in part
Hi Will,

I worked for Jim from the start of Industrial photographic at St Pauls, until after just after the move to Farringdon Road.

I know quite a lot about this larger than life character and the last time I saw him was in 1979 at Stanmore.

Bill Rose

See the full request here: Info Please: Photographer James ( Jim ) Archer 1950′s- 70′s

Will,

Just wondering if you’d be willing to circulate this around your archive contacts.

I would like to locate an image for a civilian veteran of the Vietnam war who was employed by the Save The Children Fund. Aid worker Norman Storer was present at the evacuation of Qui Nhon, Vietnam around March 31 – 2nd April 1975. He was then involved in ‘Operation Babylift’ in Saigon.

He recalls he was photographed boarding a aircraft at Qui Nhon belonging to Air America. Apparently photographs of this particular evacuation were published in US news media (I don’t know where) with the caption of “last American out of Qui Nhon” or words to that effect although he was not named. In this photo he describes he had his foot on a kit bag.

If anyone can give me any guidance on where this image might be found I would be most grateful. Norman’s children would like to locate it and make a surprise gift of it as this is the only photograph he knows that was published of his work with Save The Children. He was in fact a British citizen.

There is an archive of Save The Children’s work in Vietnam but it is not accessible or searchable. I have asked the Air America archive at www.utdallas.edu

Please contact will@pressphotohistory

‘William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) is widely considered to be the founder of photography. His personal archive, currently in private hands, is now up for sale for an estimated price of £2.2 million. The Bodleian Libraries have been awarded £1.2 million by the National Heritage Memorial Fund and have until the end of February 2013 to raise the remaining funds to acquire this Archive.’
‘The Archive contains pieces key to our heritage, including some of the first family photographs and the earliest surviving photograph by a woman. It is of unparalleled importance in understanding the background to Talbot’s pioneering The Pencil of Nature – the first commercially printed book to contain photographic illustration (a milestone in publishing history). It shows the influence Talbot’s family surroundings had on the composition of, and inspiration for, his photographic discoveries and includes some of the artefacts photographed for The Pencil.’

Bodleian Libraries seek support to acquire the Talbot Archive
Donate to the fund here

John Lennon in bed with Yoko Ono at the Hilton Hotel Amsterdam, March 1969
© Charles Ley/Mirrorpix

↑Charles Ley Daily Mirror Staff Photographer seen here with his trusty Rolleiflex camera. 22nd January 1970 © William Robson/Mirrorpix

↑Daily Mirror Photographer Charles Ley seen here with a telephoto lens attached to his camera 15th January 1962 © Staff/Mirrorpix

Mirrorpix have sent these images of Charles Ley, a Mirror staff photographer for 40 years -retired in 1980- who has died at the age of 87. (3rd Jan)
Charles took the famous picture of John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their “bed-in for Peace” -above top- in the Amsterdam Hilton in 1969.
More images by Charles during his time at the Mirror Newspaper can be found here

Thanks to Mel, Ferg & John at the Mirrorpix archives for sourcing the images on this article.
Find more on Charles’s life here at Press Gazette

Dear Will,
Please find as requested a few old photos of Central Press staff from 1965 to 1970,
Regards,
Alan Coomes

Alan is on the right looking for a bus back to Fleet Street….

Alan heads up the Central Press cricket side……

If you can identify those in the photos or have photos you would like to send me please call 07802 437827 0r email will@pressphotohistory.com

On the roof of the Central Press offices

Looking snappy – Off out after work

If you can identify those in the photos or have photos you would like to send me please call 07802 437827 0r email will@pressphotohistory.com
Related Central Press articles

above: Mike at the Picture Editors’ Guild Awards 2012 – by PPHP

From reader Mike Conway – currently a photo editor at EPA – writes:
It was started in the early 1900s by a man called Wallenstein (spelling cud be off). Like many of the picture agencies of the time (and fleet street had more than half a dozen ) it was a breeding ground for some famous photographers. At the height of the newspicture business in 1930s Planet News made a reciprocal arrangement with the New York based Acme Newspicture company that later became part of the United Press (later UPI). Planet carried on as Planet during and after the second world war until 1958 when UP made a take over of the INP (International News Photo Agency) which was part of the Hearst empire. This then became UPI.

UPI bought a controlling share in Planet around 1966 – killing off the Planet name

Herbert andy Andrews was chief photographer for Planet up until the early 60s (see photo below) He made several iconic pictures including Capt Nielsen waving from the deck of the sinking Flying Enterprise in 1952, the departure of Queen Elizsabeth from Westminster Abbey at the Coronation in 1953. He was first to arrive at the Lymouth floods in Devon in 1952. During world war II he was attached for a time in the US forces as a war correspondent. In the late 1930s he was present at a couple of rallies in Germany.

He died in the early70s, tragically taking his own life.

FYI PLANET’S EARLY DAYS WERE spent in the old Dr. Johnson’s House in Gough Square, one of the many courts of Fleet Street. (that was also central press photos location).

About Mike:
after Express news I went to press association photos, then central press photos, then upi, back to central press for a couple years before returning to UPI, was transferred to Frankfurt. After a break of 9 years i worked for Reuters before finally ending at the european pressphoto agency (epa) I officially retired on 30 april (2012) but continue to work at epa on part time basis.

Read related Planet News articles on this site

UPDATED: John Balean at photo library Topfoto sent us this:

Herbert andy Andrews was chief photographer for Planet up until the early 60s
Hi Will:

Re: Planet News – attached is a picture of Herbert Andrews (1961) and you can also add that TopFoto purchased UPI London and now holds Planet News , INP , UPI negatives to 1970.

Happy New Year

John.

McCullin Directed by Jacqui Morris and David Morris – Curzon Cinema Soho London