John Downing MBE Hon. FRPS  

Photographer

 

01491 578260

jd@johndowning.co.uk

 

1977   British Press Photographer of the Year.

1979   British Press Photographer of the Year.

1980   British Press Photographer of the Year.

1981   British Press Photographer of the Year.

1984   British Press Photographer of the Year.

1988   British Press Photographer of the Year.

1989   British Press Photographer of the Year.

 

1994           International Photographer of the Year (La Nation, Argentina).

 

1978           Photokina Gold Medal.

 

1990           United Nations Gold Medal (Photography).

 

1971           Press Picture of the Year (U.K.).

 

1972           World Press Photo Competition (Runner-up).

 

1978           World Press Photo Competition (Runner-up).

 

1990           Royal Newspaper Photographer of the Year.

 

1991           Kodak Press Awards, Runner-up News and Feature sections.

 

1992           Kodak Press Awards, overall winner.

 

1997           British Press Photographer of the Year (Runner-up).

 

1998           British Press Photographer of the Year (Runner-up).

 

2001           British Airways London Eye Competition, overall winner.

 

2001           Finalist Press Gazette Photographer of the Year.

 

2001           Lifetime Achievement Award, Picture Editors Guild

           (only the second time ever awarded).

 

1992 Honoured with an MBE for ÔServices to journalism.Õ

 

Covered most major wars, including Vietnam, East Pakistan/Bangladesh, Rhodesia, Beirut, Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, Croatia, and over a dozen visits to Bosnia.

 

Lived rough for many weeks with Guerrilla fighters in Sudan, Nicaragua, and three times in Afghanistan.

 

As an assignment, hitchhiked on lorries along the ÔRoad of DeathÕ across Central America.

 

Beaten and imprisoned in Uganda by Idi Amin in what the Daily Express described on its front-page headline as, ÔWorld exclusive pictures taken inside the black hole of Kampala.Õ

 

Being actually present inside the Grand Hotel, Brighton, when the IRA bomb exploded, resulting in further world exclusive photographs.

 

Founder of the Press Photographers Association

(now The British Press PhotographersÕ Association.)

 

2001 Retired from Daily Express as Chief Photographer (since 1985) to pursue a freelance career.

 

2005 Made a life member of The British Press PhotographersÕ Association.

 

2011  Awarded an Honorary Fellowship of The Royal Photographic Society.

 

Patron of The Ian Parry Scholarship.

 

Trustee of the Jubilee Campaign.

 

2007  Married Anita DÕAttellis, pianist.

 

A member of the London Welsh Male Voice Choir.

 

Born in Llanelli, Wales.