An amazing career, frozen in time
In three decades that took him around the world, Star photographer was ‘a character in the era of characters.’ Like the time he met the Chinese premier . . .
Reg Innell would often saunter through the office of the Toronto Star, a book of poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley under his arm and a wooden pipe hanging from his lips.
“He would see himself as somewhat sophisticated, and that in and of itself would turn yourself into a character in the ’60s and early ’70s,” said Fred Ross, who worked with Innell at the Star in the photo department.
“Reg was a character in the era of characters. He didn’t have to work at it.”
Innell, a voracious reader who had an affinity for the arts and golf, was a Star photojournalist, whose pictures graced its pages for 30 years. His work was powerfully framed, with all corresponding elements delicately balanced.
Innell died peacefully last Thursday at the age of 92. He had been grappling with kidney complications and a weakened immune system caused him to succumb to an infection, said his life partner Margaret Serrao.
“He had lived his life and Reg was a man who was able to face reality starkly in the face,” she said. “He was a warrior. To the last days of his life he fought to live.”
Innell was born in Essex, England. After the Second World War, he lived in London and sold pictures to newspapers. He was posted in the British Army for four years.
He immigrated to Canada in the early 1960s, continuing his freelance work, but this time in Toronto before joining the Star. He retired from the paper in 1990.
Innell won a National Newspaper Award in1967 for best feature photograph, depicting a 2-year-old girl searching for her father during a police graduation ceremony.
“He had a real knack of seeing people probably in a different manner than most people and capturing it in a photograph,” said Doug Griffin, another Star photographer who worked alongside Innell.
“Very intimate, revealing pictures. He really loved photographing just anyone on the street.”
Innell’s career at the Star took him all over the world, including Cuba to photograph Fidel Castro and to China to take pictures of then prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s official visit in 1973.
It was during this visit that then Chinese premier Zhou Enlai touched Innell’s long grey beard, remarking on his resemblance to Communist philosopher Karl Marx. At one point, the premier, rather forcefully, corralled Innell toward a cave containing a Buddha, where multiple Chinese photographers took their picture.
“I’ve met a lot of the world’s top statesmen,” Innell said in an article written for the Star, “but none with a sharp sense of humour as Zhou.”
Innell’s work in far-flung regions garnered recognition, but he also made his mark in Toronto by way of spot news and celebrity portraits, such as Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix, Mordecai Richler and Lou Reed.
Innell cultivated strong relation- ships with dancers at the National Ballet of Canada to the extent he landed an exclusive assignment to photograph Karen Kain’s wedding day. She is currently the National Ballet’s artistic director.
In Toronto in1964, Innell borrowed two bullets from a police officer at a Beatles concert, putting them into his ears as a precaution against screaming fans, said Lynn Ball, in a written statement to the Star.
Innell had a strong personality that you didn’t only see, but feel, Ross said.
“He didn’t suffer fools lightly,” he said, adding that Innell could be a “curmudgeon,” at times.
“For example, if the reporter, out on an assignment, would refer to (Innell) as ‘my photographer,’ that was enough to light the fuse,” Ross said.
And he was competitive, Ross said, like many photojournalists are known to be.
It was during Expo 67 that, in an attempt to one-up colleague Boris Spremo, he gingerly got into cage with lions.
“I said, ‘Reg, well you get into the lion cage and we’ll take a picture and show Boris,’ ” Ross said.
Ross said Innell got the job done — and well.
“He was a delightful guy. I’m just sorry he didn’t drink a little more.”
Innell leaves Serrao and his daughter, Adrienne. A memorial service was held over the weekend.