#17 THE PICTURE THAT CHANGED MY LIFE
In 1988 just prior to Christmas, an event happened over the skies of Scotland that would indelibly leave a mark on me personally. A Pan Am flight was downed, the result of an explosive device smuggled on board in a benign looking brown suitcase. I remember the event and I remember in particular, one picture. A picture made by photographer Tom Stoddart.
I’ve started asking many of the photographers I talk to for the photography podcast, to think of one picture that recalls why they got into this thing we call photography, or to talk about a picture so palpable that it’s formed or propped up their path to practise a certain style or genre.
Today the pictures that have shaped careers or approaches for Tom Stoddart, Leonard Neumann and Nick Turpin.
FURTHER REFERENCE
Tom Stoddart’s chosen Marine images from Larry Burrows and Don McCullin.
Leonard Neumann’s appreciation of Salgado’s train station picture and Tony-Ray Jones.
Nick Turpin’s choice, The Fallen Man from Joel Meyerowitz.
“The picture that changed my life.” Image by Tom Stoddart. Copyright, not to be reproduced without permission.
Photographs made on Greenham Common Airbase, the ‘scars’ left by a former nuclear tactical airbase.