John Cleave

John started out in 1952, aged 16 as an apprentice in the Daily Mirror dark room. He studied photography at the London College of Art and Printing and qualified as a photographic Technician, spending a further two years in the darkroom before picking up his cameras and following his true ambition - to become a press photographer. Being a technician does not automatically make one a photographer, but it allowed John to work with the best photographers of the day, employed by the Daily Mirror, at that time a mighty newspaper with a 6 million circulation. Gazing at their images and absorbing their ideas gave him plenty of inspiration.

John operated as a freelance throughout the sixties gaining considerable success both in Fleet Street and the US during the height of the turbulent Civil Rights Movement. After returning from the US he took on a stint as staff photographer at Reveille for a year before returning to freelancing, working extensively in Europe through an agent, his pictures appearing in many leading overseas magazines and periodicals over the next few years, whilst also freelancing for the Times and Sunday Times in the UK (edited at that time by the great Harold Evans).

In 1979 John was given the chance to return to Mirror Group Newspapers as a staff photographer. It was like going home! The job offered many opportunities to travel in UK and overseas, everywhere from Europe to Africa, India, Afghanistan and China - no two days were ever the same. But perhaps the best assignment came in 1991 when he travelled to Russia, thanks to Mirror Photographer Mike Maloney, and of course boss Robert Maxwell who was a best friend of President Gorbachev.

He travelled with Mike Maloney to Russia to spend two weeks photographing the priceless treasures the Hermitage Museum in the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg, while Mike did the same in the great Moscow Museum. They were accompanied by Studio Manager Bobby Powell. It was a wonderful time to be in Russia with Glasnost and Perestroika happening: happy Russians dancing in the streets.

John retired in 1993 and settled on the Isle of Wight with his artist partner, Anne Toms, where he could spend more time sailing the yacht, Athene (which he shared with a couple of friends), and taking the occasional snap of the beautiful island.