About

Bob Tracy learnt his craft as a newspaper photographer - and puts his unique take on photography down to one man.

He remembers: "I had a mentor on the Braintree and Witham Times who used a 35mm camera. And I soon realised that with a 35mm you could take far more interesting and striking shots with the wide angle lens that other people weren't doing at the time." At the time most professional news photographers used speed graphic or twin reflex cameras rather than 35mm.

In 1969 Bob took his portfolio, gathered from stints working with the Braintree and Witham Times, Portsmouth Evening News and West Sussex Gazette, to British Airways where he became a senior photographer in their film and photographic office for eight years. 

His brief covered everything from technical shots of BA's fleet to travelling to places which were just opening up to tourism. 

"It was the early days of holiday brochures," he says. "We had to be inventive. There weren't guides readily available so we had to explore the country quickly. When we went to Sri Lanka we couldn't go to the north of the island because the Tamils were fighting a civil war, but the tourist board lent us a gunboat and a helicopter so we could fly all over the island."

In 1975 both Air France and British Airways flew their Concordes to Dulles Airport in Washington DC. 

Continues Bob: “It was the first time they had been to the States, and they really wanted to push that route.”  Rather than just take a pic of the plane landing Bob found a US cop with a gun and got him to stand between the two planes as a Welcome to the US. (Photo by Bob Tracy) 

Concorde played a big part in his job. Bob documented the first flight of BAC 001 in March 1969, and took iconic shots of the plane which were seen all over the world. He also flew on the supersonic plane several times, both for travel shoots and fun news stories. "We used to come up with stunts with the Daily Mail's [legendary sportswriter] Ian Wooldridge," he remembers. "One day we decided to play some golf - half the round at a course in Richmond in Surrey, then we got on Concorde and played the remainder at a course at the Pentagon's golf course in Washington DC before coming back. We did a putt down the middle of the Concorde aisle, which for a time was the furthest and fastest putt in the world.

"I remember going on a press trip from Heathrow to Canada - I was living in Amberley at the time. I got in my Volkswagen Beetle and travelled the 65 miles from Amberley to Heathrow, parked up with my airport pass by the pier, got through immigration and the check-in lounge and onto Concorde. We got to Newfoundland, did the job and flew back on Concorde. I got back to Amberley in time to go to the pub and tell everyone about my Canada trip that day."

Bob left British Airways in 1977 to set up his own international news and travel photographic agency SKA and BobTracyVisuals, which is running today. Having travelled the world, he has now settled in Ringmer near Lewes.