celebrating 25 years as a professional photographer
I am so very proud to be celebrating 25 years as a professional photographer this month and to mark the occasion I would like to take you on a journey through my career and introduce you to four very special people who have helped develop my life in photography.
The first and most influential of those amazing people is my father, Dave Sewell.
The Sewell interest in photography goes back to 1955, when my dad began an apprenticeship at Jaguar Cars in Coventry with his identical twin brother, John.
The pair were obsessed with cars and motor sport and really enjoyed going to watch races at the weekend. To enhance the experience and to remember the day my dad bought himself a Hunter 35mm camera to record the race action.
Recalling one such race dad tells me “I remember taking some photographs of Graham Hill at Silverstone with this camera and they were awful ! in the sense that we were a long way from the track and I didn’t have a telephoto lens”
This was a time when large companies had a range of clubs and society’s for their staff and Jaguar had a photographic club. With enthusiastic members and a fully equipped darkroom dad joined the group and learned all he could about photography.
Continuing his Silverstone story “At the club I printed this photograph of Graham Hill and because he was so small in the frame I had to enlarge it a lot. Well, it was so grainy you could only just make out the number on the car. It was terrible !”
It may not have been the best quality but this was a photograph dad had taken, developed, printed and hung on the wall. That’s a real achievement and its moments like those when hobbies are born. So I thank you, Graham Hill.
Slightly off topic but I’m really proud to tell you - dad was on the design team of the E Type.
For as long as I can remember, dad had a camera with him on holiday and he’d often take photographs of my mum (Jan), my two older brothers (Pete and Stu) and me. I love looking back at those pictures to see how we’ve grown up together, how fashions have changed and how I used to have a lot of hair !
When I was 13, mum, dad and I went on holiday to Yorkshire in our touring caravan. We were pitched quite close to the North Yorkshire Railway and dad wanted to take some photographs of the trains. So one morning we found a spot on the line where we could see a train coming through a bridge which was how dad planned to frame his photograph.
Trained to his eye, dad had his trusty 35mm Rollieflex and I had a blue plastic Kodak fun camera. We waited for what seemed like an age for the train to come but when it did it chuffed majestically towards us along the track. With a toot from the driver the train passed through the bridge in full steam and that was the moment. I pressed the shutter button and - nothing happened.
I had forgotten to wind on the film from the last picture I took and by the time I’d realised what had happened the train was long gone. I was annoyed, to say the least.
Dad was very understanding and, seeing how upset I was, suggested I use his camera to take photographs on our visit to the National Railway Museum in York the next day.
I loved using dad’s ‘big camera’ and managed to rattle off a whole roll of film in the museum.
I’m pretty sure he didn’t get his camera back until the end of the holiday as I was having so much fun using it to take all sorts of pictures.
So that was it - I had been bitten by the photography bug and there was no looking back.
Not long after we had returned home from our holiday Dad bought me my first ‘proper’ camera - as I imagine he wanted his Rolleiflex back !
The all black Pentax ME 35mm film SLR (single lens reflex) became my pride and joy.
I took so many photographs that trips to Boots became weekly visits to get films developed and to buy more stock. We take it for granted now in the digital age that photographs are instantly available to view but back then it took days to get your pictures back. I still remember the thrill at opening the packet to see what you had taken and every one that didn’t have a ‘Quality Control’ sticker on it was a bonus !
As more of those photographs became ‘keepers’ the more I wanted to learn.
Reading the paper one night we found that our local college in Hinckley (Leicestershire) were running an evening course in photography. I didn’t feel confident to go on my own so dad suggested we sign up and do the course together. It was all new to me but a great refresher for dad. The City and Guilds 923 Photography course was run so that each term had its own theme. We learned the basics of how cameras worked, we did portraits, landscapes, black and white photography but my favourite module was black and white printing. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to stand in a darkroom and watch your photograph gradually appear on the paper as it reacts with the developing fluid. It’s pure magic !
My father is affectionately known in our family as ‘DIY Dad’ as he can turn his hand to fixing and making pretty much anything. So you won’t be surprised when one weekend he decided to build a darkroom in our loft at home. It was pretty cold up there, particularly in the winter months, but I’d spend hours printing photographs for myself, family and friends.
By now I was totally obsessed with photography and that was all down to one person. Thank you dad for helping me discover my passion.
During my GCSE’s thoughts started to turn to possible careers. I’m not much of an academic, so naturally I leaned towards photography. At that time though there was a recognised path of A Levels, university, job. And not knowing much else that’s the route decided to try.
If I had done well in my A Levels exams I would have studied for a BA Honours Photography at the University of Wolverhampton.
The results ‘C E N’ left me with no place at Wolverhampton and very few options. All of my friends were off to university and I didn’t want to be left out so I scoured Ceefax for clearing places and found a Product Design course at Bournemouth University. My E in Graphical Communication was enough, it was creative, I enjoyed technical drawing and everything would be fine.
I did a term at Bournemouth before realising I’d made a big mistake. I didn’t want to be a designer. I wanted to take pictures. So I dropped out of university and worked in a supermarket for the rest of the year - all the time plotting my path to a career in photography.
That path began with a GNVQ Media Studies course at the Hinckley College which gave me time to consider in which area of photography I wanted to work. I thought about medical and forensics photography before the idea of newspapers sparked an interest. I wrote to the editor of my local weekly paper, the Hinckley Times to see if I could do some work experience with them and that’s where I met the next of my mentors, Jim Tomlinson.
To many people, myself included, Jim Tomlinson is Mr. Hinckley.
From 1970 to 2008 Jim was the Chief Photographer of the Hinckley Times and when you spend that much time photographing every major event in a town’s history you get very well known.
Jim is quite rightly very proud of his record of photographing 38 consecutive Hinckley Carnivals and working in the town for all those years admits that he can’t walk down the high street without three or four people stopping to say hello.
Before turning professional, Jim was a very keen amateur photographer. He loved taking pictures and enjoyed printing them in the darkroom he built under the stairs at home. Out and about with his camera one day Jim bumped into Ewart Nichols who at that time was the Hinckley Times photographer. Jim remembers Ewart asking “I’ve got two jobs on at the same time tomorrow. Can you do one of them for me?”
Jim was delighted to help. So the next day he photographed the event and went back to Ewart’s studio which was next to St. Catherine’s Church in Burbage. Ewart was very happy with the pictures so after that Jim started spending all his spare time at the studio printing photographs for Ewart and generally helping out.
One day Jim was in the darkroom when he heard the front door slam and Ewart was shouting loudly. He went out to see if everything was alright. Ewart had just come off the phone with the paper and after a particularly heated argument over some photographs had apparently just quit his job.
Sensing an opportunity Jim made his way up to the Hinckley Times office that afternoon to see the editor. “I hear on the grapevine you’re looking for a photographer” Jim enquired. “How do you know” came the reply. Jim went on to explain that he’d been working with Ewart Nichols and was swiftly invited for an interview the next day.
Jim went back the following day, armed with a stack of pictures, for an interview with the editor, Bill Powell and the JLT Baxter, the owner of the newspaper. Well, it must have gone well because at the end of their chat Bill said “You’ve got the job. Can you start on Monday?”
"At the time I was working in the hosiery” explains Jim “You didn’t need to give much notice, so
on the Friday I left the Atkins factory and on the Monday I walked into the Hinckley Times office”.
Fast forward to 1994 and it was me walking into the Hinckley Times office to start my two weeks of work experience in the photographic department.
I was greeted by Jim who introduced me to his two colleagues Chris Roe and Michelle Sperry.
The three of them were all great photographers so I was really looking forward to spending time with the team.
Each morning Jim would assign all the jobs in the diary and, after a coffee, the Hinckley Times Trio would be out taking pictures.
It was fascinating for me to see how the photographs I saw in the newspaper each week were taken. I remember watching in amazement at Jim going about his craft. Each shoot would start in the same way whether it be a news event, a group of school children, the presenting of a cheque or portraits of a golden wedding couple - a friendly smile, a genuine interest in their story and a chat.
Communication, I would learn, was the secret. Having your photograph taken can be a strange experience but Jim would take the time to build up trust and make a person feel comfortable in front of the camera. He’d have little phrases and jokes to make people relaxed and it showed in the final images. It was pointed out to me recently that I laugh and giggle a lot when I’m taking pictures which has the same effect - so I must have learned something !
Covering the Hinckley Carnival - Photograph by Chris Roe
Another thing that I picked up from Jim is that chatting gives you time to think about the photographs you want to take. You get an idea of the persons character, how best to illustrate the story, what kind of location would be good and the kind of light you may use. Just like cooking a meal, you have to put all the right ingredients together to get the best results. So taking the actual photograph is only a tiny part of the job.
For the first few days of my work experience I watched as Jim, Chris and Michelle went about their work. Each had their individual styles and ways of constructing pictures and I remember taking lots of notes. When I had gained a little confidence around people though Jim encouraged me to take photographs aswell once he had finished his pictures. All the people we went to see were so helpful and more than happy for a bumbling fool like me to nervously tell them where to stand and pose. I am grateful to each and every person who let me take their photographs because, as scary as it was, it gave me real world experience of doing the job.
The pictures I took during those two weeks were the start of my press portfolio - something I would rely on further along my photography journey.
I loved those two weeks so much and Jim was so encouraging that I pretty much decided then that I wanted to work in newspapers. And then, like Jim did at Ewart Nichols’ studio, I spent a lot of my spare time at the Hinckley Times helping out in the darkroom and getting to know the reporters and advertising team. Although I never worked at the newspaper there are plenty of people who thought I did, purely because I was there all time !
My experience at the Hinckley Times lead to a week working with the editorial team at the Leicester Mercury and by then I was convinced that I wanted to be a press photographer.
I remember sitting in a careers library looking through books on photography when I spotted an article which caught my attention. It was all about a one year course at The Sheffield College, run by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) in, get this, Press Photography. Well, you cannot imagine how excited I was to find a course so specifically tailored to what I wanted to do. So I applied…….and got in !
Our first assignment on the course was entitled ‘Sheffield - old and new’
It was up to us how we interpreted those words but we were to take, develop and print one photograph to illustrate the title. I hadn’t really visited Sheffield before the course so I caught the bus into the city centre and wandered around looking for inspiration. What struck me was the contrast in architecture between the town hall built in the 19th Century and the modern office blocks being built so I set to work trying to capture that in one frame.
The next day in class we displayed our prints around the room ready for judgement.
We’d all had exactly the same idea.
Our tutor came in and had a look around the room. He made some nice comments about our use of composition, angles and reflections but left us with one clear message “Buildings don’t buy newspapers. People do”.
Day one. Lesson one. Press photography is all about people.
Delivered by our brilliant tutor and the third member of my Photography Four, Mr. Paul Delmar.
During the early 1960’s Paul began his career sweeping the floors of a West Midlands portrait studio. It was not long until Paul was one of the photographers there but it was press work he really wanted to do.
Paul would go out with his camera on the days when the photographers on his local paper were not working to see if he could find something newsworthy. One Sunday he found out there was an old pub being knocked down in Dudley so he went to take pictures of it collapsing.
Like Jim Tomlinson, Paul had built a darkroom in his house so he went home, developed the film, processed a few prints and wrote a caption to tell the story. First thing on Monday morning before he went to work in the studio Paul cycled up to the Dudley Herald. He spoke to the picture editor, Ron Knowles, who loved the photographs and put them forward for publication.
Paul kept finding news events to cover and his persistence paid off as he was offered a job there in 1962. At that time Paul was one of three photographers employed by the Midland Independent Newspapers group and they would provide pictures for all six of the titles across the Midlands region.
Paul’s first job for the newspaper was a football match in Walsall. As added pressure Ron Knowles, his picture editor, was also a football correspondent and would be there reporting at the game and watching Paul work.
Paul remembers turning up at the game dressed in a sports coat and lightweight summer trousers carrying his Van Neck (VN) plate camera. This was not quite the best attire as the photographers were made to sit on mounds of snow which had been swept off the pitch !
The game began and Paul recalls following the play and pressing the shutter to photograph some action. He changed the plate over to take some more pictures but doesn’t remember anything else about the game “Except that” Paul explains “on the TV news that night it said - as an example of the extreme cold even the hardiest press photographers suffered - and there’s me being carried out by the St. John’s Ambulance with the camera on my chest. I’d passed out with hypothermia !”
Luckily for Paul though, the one picture he took was of the only goal scored in the game. On his stretcher Paul vaguely remembers Ron shouting down from the stands “get that bleedin’ camera off him” so they could get the picture processed. A lesson learned by Paul early in his career - wear the right gear for the job !
In the following days Ron was heard to say about Paul “I don’t know about him - whether he’ll last or not” But Paul did last. He got better with experience and learned a lot from the other photographers at the newspaper.
Paul with his wonderful wife, Gill
Paul worked hard at the Dudley Herald before moving to the County Express in Stourbridge as their Chief Photographer. While there, a picture he took of Margaret Thatcher caught the eye of the national press editors so Paul freelanced in London for a while before returning home to work for the Birmingham Post and Mail.
While working in Birmingham, Paul was asked by former Post photographer, Eddie Bissell, to do a lecture. Eddie had helped set up a photojournalism course in Sheffield and he wanted Paul to talk to the students about his press work.
That sounded like fun to Paul so he put a load of prints in a black bin liner and headed for Sheffield. Paul really enjoyed talking to the students and sharing his experiences. The feedback he got from the class was great too. They felt they could relate to Paul as was a working photographer and picture editor.
After the lecture Paul went to see the Principal of the college who, there and then, offered him a job. “What job?” asked Paul “I only came up to do a lecture”
The offer came as quite a surprise so Paul went away to reflect on the proposal. He’d had such a great time during the lecture and loved being around the photographers that Paul came around to the idea. “I’m young enough to do this for a couple of years and go back into the business” he thought. But it ended up being a bit longer than that, saying “I went for a day and stayed for thirty years”
In that time Paul says he must have trained over a thousand photographers at the Sheffield College. And I, for one, count myself lucky to be one of those graduates.
Sheffield in the Snow - taken on the way into college
Paul was our course leader, lecturer and tutor. To me though, he was my picture editor as this gave me the mindset of a working press photographer. He was the one who set the assignments and critiqued our work so I always saw him as the boss. A sociable boss though, that was more than happy to join us in the pub after lectures for beers and photography chat.
During the holidays and at weekends Paul would freelance to keep his eye in and continue working in the newspaper business. Being a respected member of the industry Paul was able to invite national photographers to come and talk to us at college and I loved those visits. Marc Aspland came to see us one day who is the Chief Sports Photographer for The Times. Listening to Marc was fascinating. I’ve always been into my sport so hearing his stories of covering World Cups and Olympic Games was truly inspiring. A few years after his lecture I saw Marc while covering my first game of rugby. Not only did he remember me but we sat next to each other and he gave me tips during the match on how best to cover the game. Marc is a top bloke and an amazing photographer and I’m pleased to say we have kept in touch ever since.
Aswell as photographers, Paul’s contacts book was brimming with picture editors. This was great as many of them were happy to take us on work experience at their newspapers. I was particularly keen as I knew how valuable the time would be from my weeks spent at the Hinckley Times and Leicester Mercury.
Most of my work experience time during college was spent at the Manchester Evening News (MEN) under the guidance of the then Deputy Picture Editor, Paul Sanders. Paul was (and still is) a brilliant photographer with a wealth of experience and knowledge of pictures. He’d partner me with the staff photographers to learn from them but also send me out on my own with a press release to see what I could get. I managed to get a few pictures in the paper which was a real buzz - and that’s a feeling I still get today.
On the top floor of the MEN was the Manchester office of NewsTeam International. NewsTeam was an agency providing words and pictures to the national press. All of the Manchester snappers knew each other from working in the same building so the NewsTeam boys invited me to spend some time with them.
Working with these boys meant that I had then completed the set of press photography work experience - weekly newspaper, regional daily papers and national titles. Covering the big stories of the day with Paul Ellis, Phil Noble (who beat me to the Picture Editors Guild Young Photographer of the Year in 1999 - but he’s a super bloke so I won’t hold it against him), Martin Ricketts and Rob Bodman was tremendous fun and it just increased my appetite to be a press photographer.
Back in Sheffield I remember having a drink with Paul Delmar and me showing him some of the work I had been doing. I hadn’t been at college for some time because of all the work experience but to Paul, that was a good thing. That’s what it was all about he says - getting out there and doing the job.
By then I had made lots of my own connections and built up pretty strong portfolio and that all lead to me being offered a month’s paid work experience at the NewsTeam office in Birmingham. It was an amazing opportunity but I wasn’t too sure whether I’d be good enough. Paul though, had every confidence in me and was so encouraging that I just had to say yes.
This would prove to be the best decision that I ever made.
NewsTeam is where my career took off - it’s also the place I met Mentor Four, Steve Hill.
There are two main ways in which a press agency such as NewsTeam provides pictures for newspapers. The first way is to find out about a story, go out and photograph it and then sell those pictures (often along with the words) to the national press. The other way is for a newspaper to commission photographs to be taken to illustrate their own story or feature.
The newspaper industry changed a lot when their content started appearing online but when I worked with NewsTeam in the late 1990’s each newspaper had their own house style of photography. The red top tabloids (News of the World, Sun, Daily Star) would use pictures which filled a lot of the frame and were bright and colourful to stand out on the page. The broadsheets (Daily Telegraph, Times, Independent and Guardian) would like pictures with a bit more space around the, often a wider view featuring more detail. As the broadsheet newspapers were physically twice the size of a tabloid, they could use bigger photographs on a page. The middle market tabloids (Daily Mail and Daily Express) used something between the two, liking a little more creativity than the red tops but not as spacious as the broadsheets.
This meant that when covering a news story to syndicate to the national press we had to produce a set of pictures containing each of these styles while also remembering to shoot pictures in a portrait format (vertical) and landscape orientation (horizontal) in order to fit any space on the page. For me this was a very steep learning curve and to begin with I found it very difficult.
With practice though it became more natural I really started to enjoy working in that way. It certainly made me a more creative and versatile photographer.
During my four weeks in Birmingham I was given the opportunity of going out to cover breaking news stories on my own. The more jobs I did, the more photographs I took and I soon discovered that I enjoyed shooting in a broadsheet style much more than any other. I preferred the alternative view. Using wide lenses, finding unusual angles, looking for reflections and making use of lines and symmetry was a lot of fun. The NewsTeam photographers were a talented bunch and I learned a lot from watching them work. I was drawn though to one of them in particular whose natural style seemed to mirror how I liked to shoot and that was Steve Hill.
Steve was in his element when on a broadsheet commission or illustrating a magazine feature.
He’d spend time carefully constructing his pictures and use studio flashes to enhance the light in the image. One of his favourite things to do was to find a viewpoint so he could look straight down on a scene so that all the angles were perfectly square. Whenever there wasn’t a convenient window to hang out of Steve would jump up onto his car and take photographs from there - he may have overdone this technique though as he ended up with a massive dent in the roof of his Ford Fiesta !
The other thing I found fascinating about watching Steve work was his ability to come up with several ideas for photographs and shoot them in no time at all. We went on a commercial job together once to photograph a team of business people who were planning a hike for charity.
Steve organised the group into different formations and, using their maps, boots, rucksacks and waterproofs, produced ten unique pictures. Using this approach on a commercial shoot gives the client a variety of images to choose from but it can also be employed on a newspaper feature to help build a set of pictures to tell a story.
This way of working, says Steve, comes from his time spent on an agency in Norwich called Assignments. “The agency’s owner, Bryn Colton, was a very disciplined photographer and his training did me an enormous favour. He wanted to get as many different pictures on one roll of film so there wasn’t room for wooly thoughts when you turned up on a job”. Like my experience at NewsTeam, Steve admits “the learning curve with Bryn was painfully hard”.
Much of Steve’s career path has similarities to my own. He left school at 16 with not many qualifications but a huge interest in photography. Enrolling at the local tech to do a City and Guilds and A level in photography was the next step followed by work experience at the Hunts Post in Cambridgeshire. “I was always drawn to newspapers as it seemed quite exciting” says Steve “I then did jobs for them for free at the weekends to build up my portfolio and got a job in a supermarket to pay for the film”.
This experience and portfolio was good enough for Steve to get a place at the NCTJ Press Photography course in Sheffield where he studied under your friend and mine, Mr, Paul Delmar. What did I tell you - all press photography roads lead to Delmar !
Aswell as encouraging students to find work experience placements Paul liked his photographers to apply for jobs to get the practice of interviews. Steve followed Paul’s advice, went for meetings at regional newspapers all around the country and ended up with a number of job offers. The one that appealed to Steve, and paid the most, was the was the Wiltshire Times where he stayed for three years. While working at the Times, Steve spent many weekends visiting friends in Norwich. He got to love the city and thought it was such a fun place which is why he decided to leave Wiltshire and link up with Bryn Colton at Assignments.
Each new job brings with it more experience and a better portfolio so after a few years in Norwich Steve stepped up to a larger agency in a bigger city and that, was NewsTeam.
The buzz in the Birmingham office was fantastic. Steve and the photographic team (Mike Sharp, Lee Besford, Paul Rogers, Roland Leon, Gavin Fogg and Mick Scott (who sadly passed away a few years ago), were so kind and supportive. I learned an awful lot about the industry, I’d had pictures in pretty much every national newspaper and I just didn’t want that experience to end. When my month was up I went in to see the agency boss, Nigel Iskander, to say how thankful I was for the opportunity.
In the Indy - My first photograph to be published in a national newspaper
Nigel was very complimentary about my work and appreciated how much I had gained from the experience but better than that - he offered me a job !
I mean, I’d done a job for the Daily Mail without a film in my camera only the week before so Nigel was taking a bit of a risk ! In all seriousness though I am so grateful to Nigel for giving me a chance and I cannot tell you how excited I was. It really was a dream come true.
As I mentioned before the learning curve of how to shoot in different styles was steep and that line only got steeper when I began photographing all the jobs on my own. It was not just switching between styles but the changing subject matter. In the morning I could be in a boardroom photographing a chief executive for the Guardian and the afternoon be hiding in the back of a van for the News of the World trying to get covert pictures of a drug dealer.
Not knowing what the next day would bring made for a very exciting life. The variety of work was fantastic and I got a real thrill seeing my pictures in the national press (which at that time were read by millions of people every day). It was the best job in the world.
Even though I was no longer going out with the other photographers I’d still make a point of looking at their work. I would sit and study Steve when he was editing his pictures on screen and watch him make each image the best it could possibly be. “I wanted them to look right and for every picture to stand alone” he says. That process is something which has stuck with me until today. If it’s got my name on it, I’ll make sure it looks good.
During my time at NewsTeam we had a team of eight photographers. This meant that when a newspaper called with a commission we could take it on knowing it could definitely be covered and that any of us had the experience to do a good job.
There reached a stage though when clients started asking for Steve in particular to shoot their assignments and it made him think that it might be the right time to move. A trip to London to meet pictures editors and potential clients went well and he got all the encouragement he needed to leave NewsTeam and start working for himself.
So, in May 1998 Steve moved out of Birmingham to settle in Lincoln. Business started slow but it wasn’t long until Steve was super busy with commissions from national newspapers, a string of women’s magazines and whole host of commercial clients.
If you have photographs for Steve to take now though I’m afraid you’re out of luck.
In 2014 Steve switched creative careers and now runs a very successful painting and decorating business from his beautiful farmhouse in the Lincolnshire countryside. As you would expect from Steve his painting is as precise as his photography and I heartily recommend the professional work of Steve Hill Services. Is that enough of a plug, Steve ?!!
Please bear in mind though that if you are going to get Steve to decorate your house that you stock up with teabags - he absolutely loves a brew !
After a couple of years at NewsTeam I joined a smaller press agency in Birmingham called Midlands Associated Media Pictures (which became 24/7 Media) run by photographer Jamie Jones. I really enjoyed the extra responsibility of dealing with clients, pitching ideas to picture editors and generally being more involved in the running of the business.
This extra experience and knowledge of the industry gave me the confidence to branch out on my own so in the summer of the year 2000 I set up Mike Sewell Images. Using contacts from my time in Birmingham I was able to start working straight away and quickly settled into freelance life. While working for my national newspaper and public relations clients I set up the photographic department of a new free weekly publication called The Hinckley Independent. This was a great experience and it helped to broaden my understanding of how individual newspaper titles worked.
I was really enjoying being my own boss when an opportunity came along to be a staff photographer on a regional newspaper. But this was not just any regional newspaper - it was my regional newspaper, The Leicester Mercury.
The Leicester Mercury photographer’s gallery - Picture by Will Johnston
The paper was expanding its coverage in the towns surrounding the city and they needed extra photographic help. For six months, while posting snappers out to Hinckley, Coalville and Loughborough I was drafted into their city centre office in Leicester.
I was used to doing one, maybe two, jobs a day working for myself so having six or seven assignments a day at the Mercury came as a bit of a shock! Yes, it was a different way of working but I soon got into the rhythm and really began to enjoy being part of a community newspaper.
One thing though that was very similar to my previous jobs was the wide range of jobs. Covering news, features, health, business, politics and education stories made for a great variety of assignments. Being a Leicestershire lad too meant I cared about each and every story and all the people involved.
The variety of subjects was fantastic but sport was my real passion. I had to pinch myself sometimes that I was actually being paid to be ringside for a Rendall Munroe fight or photographing Jamie Vardy scoring a screamer, or taking pictures of the Leicester Tigers picking up another trophy at Twickenham. Being so close to the action was incredible but also, a real privilege.
I loved being part of a busy newsroom aswell and I was fortunate to work alongside some brilliant photographers and very talented writers on fascinating stories. Some of my highlights include flying with the County Air Ambulance, travelling to Scotland to see a family from Narborough who’d bought a castle, documenting the Queen’s visits to Leicestershire, jumping out of an aeroplane (attached to a skydiver), accompanying some very special children on a ‘Wishes for Kids’ trip to Lapland, and, cycling from the King Power Stadium to Huddersfield Town FC for the Text Ellis campaign. My Leicester Mercury days were amazing times and I cherish every one of them.
My six month contract with the Mercury turned into 14 glorious years at the newspaper.
Mike and the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee tour - Picture by Alex Hannam
In 2016 a round of cuts took our department from six photographers down to two so I decided to take voluntary redundancy. My sympathies lie with anyone who has been through that process. It’s horrible.
Weirdly though, I do have to thank the bosses at Trinity Mirror (now publisher Reach plc)
I certainly didn’t think it at the time but making me redundant was the best thing that could have happened. Now, as a freelance photographer, I am my own boss again. I have amazing and supportive clients. My work life balance is a choice, I can take our daughter to school. I can organise my business around our family. I just love working for myself.
Sure, the last two years have been a challenge. I mean, you can’t photograph people in the middle of a pandemic but I am pleased to say that business is getting back to normal and I could not be happier.
Leicester Mercury football writer (now with the Mail on Sunday) James Sharpe and myself at the Midland Media Awards picking up our Sports Reporter and Sports Photographer of the Year awards
I have really enjoyed writing this post and it’s giving me the chance to reflect on my career. The overriding feeling I have is gratitude. I’ve learned so much and feel so fortunate to have witnessed the things I have, visited the places I’ve been and met the most amazing people. There’s no way I would have done half the things I have if it were not for my job. So, thank you, photography.
I am incredibly proud to be celebrating 25 years as a professional photographer. This achievement though would not have been possible without the support from some pretty special people.
First I have to mention, of course, the Photography Four.
My dad, Dave Sewell, for inspiring me to pick up a camera
Jim Tomlinson, for sparking my interest in press photography
Paul Delmar, for immersing me in the newspaper industry
Steve Hill, for helping develop my photography style
At the Hinckley Times - Photographers Chris Roe and Michelle Tennison (nee Sperry)
At The Sheffield College - Fellow photographers and house mates Ben Curtis and Jason Bye
In Manchester - Photographers Paul Sanders (MEN), Paul Ellis, Phil Noble, Martin Ricketts and Rob Bodman (NewsTeam)
At NewTeam Birmingham - Photographers Mike Sharp, Roland Leon, Paul Rogers, Lee Besford, Gavin Fogg and Mick Scott.
At 24/7 Media - Photographers Jamie Jones and Dave Marsden
At The Leicester Mercury - Picture Editors Jason Senior and Andy Baker, photographers Darren Staples, Neil Medhurst (an amazing bloke, LCFC fan and fellow baldy who is sadly no longer with us), Alistair Langham, Max Ewen, Chris Gordon, Sarah Salotti (nee Melton), Janna Dixon, Emily Carey (nee Barber), Alex Hannam, Freelancer Andy Carpenter, Matt Short, Beth Walsh and Will Johnston. Feature writers Jeremy Clay, Adam Wakelin and Lee Marlow. Sport writers Martin Crowson, James Sharpe and, everyone’s favourite events manager, Jen Johnstone.
The Mercury snappers before our Movember challenge. (left to right) Matt Short, Will Johnston, Chris Gordon, Andy Baker and myself
Sports Photographers - Marc Aspland, Eddie Keogh, Michael Regan, Matt Lewis and Neil Plumb
My amazing clients - AVA PR, Bromwich Hardy, BACP, Coventry University, Daily Mail Sport, First Bus, Forecourts4Sale, Ullesthorpe Golf Club, Parkside Tiles, Twycross Zoo, Unsworth Sugden, University of Leicester, Be Bold Media, Cyber Security UK, Cucumber PR, ESF Events, MSDUK, House PR, Holy Spirit MAC, Topps Tiles, Druck, Will Johnston Photogaphy, Lucy Hall PR and the Platform Housing Group
My incredibly supportive family - Mum Jan, Dad Dave, Brothers Stu and Pete, my beautiful wife Julie, our wonderful daughter Darcey and our bonkers Goldendoodle dog Sergio Garcia.
I would like to thank you, too, for spending time with me today and I hope you have enjoyed the journey.
If you are interested in seeing some of my recent work I’d like to invite you over to my sister site www.mikeysewell.co.uk
With my thanks and very best wishes,
