Famous photographers

[LouiseTopp]

Just a thought. What photographers have influeneced you? One I admired was that was the picture of St Paul's cathedral taken by Herbert Mason IN 1940 during the Blitz. One of the true iconic images of the Twentieth Century, something I would have loved to have captured.

Exactly seventy years ago a photographer for the Daily Mail, Mr Mason stood on the rooftop of the newspapers office in Fleet Street watching as London burned around him. Flames leaped from building to building as the firemen struggled to control them.

Here is a man who could have taught me something. There had been a short pause in the bombing over the Christmas period but now it had restarted, this time the target was the city, that square mile of London that was the financial heart of the country. Imagine watching all that carnage going on about you, with finger poised on the shutter just waiting, waiting?

As well as Herbert Mason there was another man standing on a rooftop watching the devastation in the streets below and that man was Winston Churchill. According to someone who was there Churchill turned to an aide and said ''the *******s will pay for this'', and continued ''St Paul's must be saves''.

During the brief respite firemen worked to the brink of exhaustion to extinguish the fires around St Paul's and Wrens church was saved, little did they know at the time that in the camera of Herbert Mason lay the image of their victory, an image that would represent the courage of the British people not to be cowed by tyranny but to rise above it as St Paul's rose above the ashes of London. An image which would outlive the war.

So this is the man who impressed me, I could never be like him but it just shows how important is is to capture the past before it's gone. Fashion and glamour hold nothing for me, but a street or an alleyway is a different thing. I like iconic photography, I can actually tell people I was there to capture the moment forever frozen in time.

I only knew about Lord Snowdon and David Bailey, but these are truly inspiring. Do you know of any famous photographers?