Fleet Street photog covered war, royals
Soames known for her revealing B&W portraits
Sally Soames, who has died aged 82, was a Fleet Street photographer who covered everything from the Yom Kippur War to the U.K.’S National Front demonstrations, but her real strength was portraiture; she had the gift of establishing a personal connection with her subjects, and her images — always shot in black and white and mostly in natural light — captured the vulnerable individual behind the public face.
Soames worked with kings, queens, heads of government, writers, artists and Hollywood stars. She would research her subjects in depth and spend time talking to them before taking her shots, coaxing even the most reluctant sitter to give her something of themselves.
She established a fruitful working relationship with Britain’s first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, whom she first photographed in her constituency of Finchley before she became leader of the Conservative Party, finding her “very friendly and amenable.”
Soames made frequent visits to Downing Street, the final occasion being the night before Thatcher’s departure from office. She noted that the Iron Lady always called her “dear,” never by her name.
Soames was born Sally Winkleman in north London on Jan. 21, 1937. Educated at St. Martin’s College of Art, she took up photography in the late 1950s when she borrowed her husband Leonard’s camera and found she had a natural flair. She went on to join a camera club, and in 1961 her image of a young man celebrating the New Year in Trafalgar Square won a competition, launching her career.
Her first regular work was for The Observer from 1963, though she messed up her first assignment, of a golf tournament. Not knowing she should wait until the ball was played, she took her picture — the sound infuriating the golfer and embarrassing her colleagues.
She worked for the Sunday Times from 1968 to 2000, covering the miners’ strikes of the 1980s when she took a photograph of union leader Arthur Scargill covered in coal dust, and the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
One of her last jobs before retirement was to photograph Tony Blair for the 2001 general election.
Many of her portraits are held in major galleries and collections around the world.
Her marriage was dissolved in 1966. She is survived by their son.