At Alamy we were saddened to hear of the passing of one of Alamy’s strongest supporters and finest photographers.
Roger Bamber was probably the first ‘name’ photographer to join us in the fledgling days of Alamy having enjoyed a prolific career at major newspapers from the Sun to the Guardian and he continued to submit his finest work to us over the following years. He sang Alamy’s praises to others and he was a joy to meet alongside his wife Shan Lancaster at various industry events and gatherings.
A multi-award winning photographer, Roger very sadly passed away aged 78 in September 2022 but not before he completed the selection of images for his ‘life’s work’ Roger Bamber: Out of the Ordinary published by Unicorn Publishing on April 1st 2023.
The photographer Roger Bamber with Banksy graffiti
Described by Eamon McCabe, the celebrated Photographer and Picture Editor, as ‘A Picture Editor’s Dream’, Roger covered events from deadly serious issues of the day, winning an award for his shot of an IRA bomb aftermath, to his trademark depiction of the seemingly mundane minutiae viewed through a light-hearted lens.
Roger Bamber was simply a brilliant British photojournalist who captured the world from the angles others didn’t see.
As well as the book, there is an exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery to celebrate his work running from April through to September in his adopted home of Brighton.
A Boston Terrier dog in a pink tutu leaping in the air by beach huts at the seaside
Photographers don’t always see the fruits of their labours when submitting to a platform like Alamy but Roger made it almost into a sport. His wife Shan was kind enough to share these memories of his Alamy work:
“How much fun he had seeing some of his images popping up. ‘Spotting stock’ was something he was always trying to persuade other photographers to try. He took it seriously as a job in itself and he loved coming up with ideas which would sell with you. When he got commissions, he did the job for the client, then always looked to see quirky angles for Alamy. Whenever he went out he had a camera ready for anything, a dog he met on the seafront or a workman making a good shape on a building site (those sold and sold and sold). He was always being interviewed by photo mags and photography students and he was always cheerful about the joys of Alamy.”
This time in his own words:
“When I’m out on a job I fill the brief and then I always look around me before packing up, in case there’s a stock image for Alamy. Strong, simple images of ordinary things are some of the most successful and the only rule I have is that it has to make a striking picture no matter what it is. For example, I did a picture of the rooftops of street of old terraced housed with spiky old TV aerials against a darkening sky. A year later Sky TV licensed it to use on the side of their vans as part of an ad campaign to switch to satellite dishes and I spotted it driving down the road.”
Brighton West Pier in its final days in 2003 with starlings flying in to roost at sunset
A truly great photographer, his good humour and craft will be missed but his memory lives on in both the book and exhibition. Here at Alamy we feel very lucky to have been involved in a very small way in Roger’s career.