Eamonn McCabe, one of the most celebrated and admired newspaper photographers and picture editors of his era, has died aged 74.
McCabe was a multi-award-winning athletics photographer at the Observer from 1976 and later on grew to become a trailblazing image editor of the Guardian at a essential second in its heritage. His third act was as a portrait photographer, with 29 illustrations of his get the job done in the collection of the Nationwide Portrait Gallery.
McCabe’s death at his residence in Suffolk on Sunday was sudden and surprising. His wife, Rebecca Smithers, a previous Guardian journalist, stated McCabe was a form, modest and encouraging character.
“He was very generous to youthful photographers coming up through the method,” she said. “He was quite encouraging. He would give huge lectures but also speak to little minor camera clubs in village halls. If people wished to hear about his do the job he was joyful to do that.”
The war photographer Don McCullin explained McCabe as a beautiful and simple male. “He was quite passionate about images and every time you dealt with him he was normally genuine and a pretty nice human staying. Like most of us, his lifestyle was pictures.”
McCullin reported McCabe slice his enamel in what were the very best of instances, photographically, prior to the digital revolution.
“Photography has lost its way a little bit, the way color and electronic and all all those issues have come into vogue. A whole lot of people today like me and him likely assumed our amount was up.”
McCabe photographed McCullin for portraits on two instances. He mentioned: “He was just these a pleasant dude, he was constantly so enthusiastic.”
Katharine Viner, the editor-in-chief of the Guardian, stated: “Eamonn was a fantastic photographer and really proficient picture editor, who assisted make the Guardian and Observer into visual powerhouses.
“He was also a charming gentleman – as a young Guardian author I was always thrilled if he was assigned to the similar story as me. He will be greatly missed.”
The former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger claimed McCabe was unconventional in that he essentially experienced a few occupations – sport photographer, image editor and then portrait photographer.
“It is extremely exceptional for anyone who does action sports activities to grasp the art of portrait pictures. I think he is distinctive in that respect. He spanned three fields and excelled at all of them.”
McCabe was born in north London and, apart from a spell at a movie school in San Francisco, was self-taught as a photographer. He joined the Observer in 1976 and shortly turned a star, profitable athletics photographer of the yr four occasions.
He photographed the titanic Borg v McEnroe tennis matches, took a memorable photo of Brendan Foster working in the rain on his way to placing a particular most effective in the the 10,000 metresin 1978, and was there for the Boat Race the identical year in which the Cambridge boat sank.
“My initially Boat Race, they sink, I get the blame for it … but it produced a charming photograph,” he reported in a single job interview.
Just one of his most memorable photographs was of the Chinese desk tennis participant Li Zhenshi and his staggeringly superior provide.
In 1985, he was named news photographer of the year for his pictures from the Heysel stadium disaster.
After a spell as photograph editor of Robert Maxwell’s small-lived SportsWeek, McCabe was employed as the Guardian’s image editor by the paper’s editor, Peter Preston. It was a time when the new Unbiased newspaper was a lot far more daringly showing the electricity of news pictures and the Guardian, which experienced some good photographers, was slipping at the rear of, nevertheless working with photos in a conventional, frequently cliched way.
McCabe grew to become a huge, good element of the Guardian’s “modern, newsy, busy” redesign, winning photograph editor of the calendar year a document 6 occasions.
His 3rd act was as a portrait photographer, such as unforgettable collection of writers in the rooms the place they wrote and artists in their studios.
Some of people are in the National Portrait Gallery collection, excellent photos of artists which includes Bridget Riley, Chris Ofili, Paula Rego and Frank Auerbach.
Fiona Shields, the Guardian’s head of photography, explained McCabe as “the godfather of photojournalism”.
“He definitely set a conventional and still left a legacy that we all adhere to and are truly happy to comply with. He was also an exceptionally form man or woman with wonderful great humour. He was usually whole of anecdotes and heat.”
Roger Tooth, who succeeded McCabe as Guardian image editor, joked that each of them agreed that taking images and working the photograph desk was “so considerably greater than working”.
He mentioned: “Eamonn was a good photographer and picture editor with a all-natural talent for capturing or determining the strange or unseen. With his organic heat he was normally an encouraging presence wherever he was.”
McCabe was also a regular speaker about pictures, wrote several guides and was concerned in a amount of television sequence, which includes Britain in Focus for BBC 4.
He is survived by Smithers and their daughter, Mabel, and his son, Ben, by a earlier relationship.
McCullin explained McCabe was like all great photographers – he under no circumstances stopped functioning. His wife agreed. “Only two months in the past he was photographing Aldeburgh rugby club. No career was too huge or small.”
