John Downing (17 April 1940 – 8 April 2020) was a British photographer.

Biography

Downing was born on 17 April 1940 in Llanelli, Wales. He began his career as an apprentice photographer in 1956 for the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'', staying until 1961. He then worked for the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'' as a freelancer from 1962 to 1964, and then as a full-time photographer until 2001. He became head of the photography department in 1985. Significant events covered by Downing include the Vietnam War, the Bosnian Genocide, the Rwandan Genocide, the War in Afghanistan, and the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

. He was the only photographer present at the

Grand Brighton Hotel The Grand Brighton Hotel is a historic Victorian sea front hotel in Brighton on the south coast of England. Designed by John Whichcord Jr. and built in 1864, it was intended for members of the upper classes visiting the city, and remains one o ...

during an

assassination attempt This is a list of survivors of assassination attempts, listed chronologically. It does ''not'' include those who were heads of state or government at the time of the assassination attempt. See List of heads of state and government who survived as ...

on Margaret Thatcher on 12 October 1984. He was honored in the '' World Press Photo'' of the Year contest three times: 1972, 1978, and 1981. He was awarded ''British Press Photographer of the Year'' in 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1988, and 1989. He was inducted into the Order of the British Empire in 1992 for his "service to journalism". Downing founded the ''British Press Photographers Association'' in 1984. In 2001, he retired from the ''Daily Express'' and became a freelance photographer. He died on 8 April 2020 at the age of 79.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Downing, John 1940 births 2020 deaths Welsh photographers People from Llanelli