119
Photographic
memories
John Ferguson, who took many of the pictures in this year’s
Powerlist, has been recognised as one of Fleet Street’s finest for
more than two decades. Angela Foster hears him reminisce
y dad told me I’d never make any money being a photo- be doubly better than my counterparts. That’s the only way I could be
M
grapher. He wanted me to go to university. He didn’t see accepted,” he says, before adding, “Attitudes have changed a bit – there’s
photography as a job, he saw it as a hobby.” more black people in journalism than there was 20 years ago when I
With more than 20 years’ experience on the nationals started, but not much more.”
as one of Fleet Street’s first black photographers – including 12 years on He ended up doing jobs for Piers Morgan, the former Daily Mirror
staff at the Daily Mirror – John Ferguson can safely say he has proved his editor turned TV talent show judge, while he was editor of the News
father wrong. of the World. “He took a shine to me,” he says. “He sent me around the
He has covered royal weddings and funerals, Hurricane Katrina in world.”
New Orleans, the Bosnia conflict and Labour’s election victory in 1997. When Morgan moved on to the Mirror he called up John to offer
His work has taken him around the world, including Afghanistan and him a staff contract.
Africa, and he has photographed some of the world’s most famous “I’d got a scoop on Princess Diana,” he says, modestly refusing to
people. Last year he staged his successful Black Britannia exhibition, elaborate. “He wrote me a letter saying how fantastic my work was,
which featured 50 black role models including Archbishop of York John how he couldn’t believe how I worked the story to the newspaper’s
Sentamu, Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton and Naomi Campbell. advantage. Then I got another letter saying come and work for the
Prime Minister Gordon Brown opened the exhibition at London’s City Mirror as their showbusiness photographer.”
Hall in March 2008, hailing the contribution of black people to Britain. He worked alongside showbiz columnist Matthew Wright covering
Born the eldest of three children to Jamaican parents, John grew the start of the Britpop era, followed the Spice Girls around the
up in Crouch End in north London. His father was an engineer and his world as well as the Oscars, MTV awards and Cannes film festival.
mother worked in blood consultancy. It was seeing a picture by Neil But it is the less glamorous work that he did once he moved over
Leifer of a victorious Muhammad Ali after his fight with Sonny Liston in to features that he enjoyed most. He travelled to Rwanda for the
1965 that first sparked John’s interest in photography. He was 14. tenth anniversary of the genocide, to Darfur to photograph refugees
“That picture had everything,” he recalls, when we meet at London following the conflict, and all over Asia.
members’ club and media haunt Shoreditch House. “It had passion, At home he found himself covering heartrending stories about
strength, power. That’s what got me into sports photography.” black youngsters caught up in gun crime and it was this that spawned
Soon he was attending after-school photography classes. He got his the idea for his exhibition.
first job as a trainee darkroom assistant at a press agency in Clerkenwell, “I got tired of all the negative stories,” he says. ‘There was nothing
north London, when he was 18, covering football matches. His friends positive, unless it was sport. I wanted to redress the balance.”
thought he was “just playing” at his new career while some of his The exhibition, which was four years in the making, was so
colleagues were more brutal. successful its four-week run was extended. But John says there were
“One of my darkroom managers told me I would never make it as a some surprising high-profile figures that refused to take part. “They
photographer on Fleet Street. I asked why and he said, ‘Because you’re didn’t want to be labelled as black artists,” he says.
black’. I was about 20 then. It really shocked me, then I thought, ‘Stuff His current project is a series of photographs of albino men,
you, I will make it as a photographer’.” women and children called Living With Albinism in the UK which he
Undeterred, he completed his apprenticeship and was soon doing hopes will form another exhibition. “I was sitting at a bus stop next
shifts on the side for the national newspapers, which spelled the end to someone with albinism and I realised I know nothing about it and
of his time at the agency and the start of his Fleet Street career. “I was probably 99% of the population don’t either,” he says.
moonlighting for the Mail on Sunday and they put my byline on one of Other plans include portraits of black women in academia and
my pictures. The office saw it and that was it, I was out,” he recalls. “It he is also working on an ad campaign for the African and Caribbean
was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I went to Fleet Leukaemia Trust. Having photographed the likes of Michael
Street all wide-eyed and said, ‘Give me a job’.” Jackson and Nelson Mandela is there anyone else he would like to
He admits his early days on the nationals were a struggle. “Fleet photograph? “Obama,” he says, without hesitation.
Street is very white and male-orientated. I remember my first day
walking into one newspaper office and all heads went down. I had to Angela Foster is a sub-editor on the Guardian
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