AN UNFLINCHING LENS AND EYE FOR BUSINESS
CELEBRITIES, TRAGEDIES AND TECHNOLOGY, PHOTOGRAPHER PJ BROWNE HAS SEEN IT ALL OVER THE PAST 40 YEARS ACROSS COUNTY WEXFORD
IT WAS the arrival of a Kennedy in New Ross that got a young aspiring cyclist to park his bike and pick up a camera, sparking a life-long career behind the lens which saw him cover some of the biggest stories in the country over a 30-year period.
PJ Browne had no training of any kind when he picked up his first camera. ‘There was nobody with the same interest to talk to or compare notes with. I did buy a book called Camera by Eric DeMare which I used for a focus point. Today there are many opportunities to learn the art. Then there was nothing,’ PJ said.
He bought a better camera, a 35mm. ‘I developed an interest in photography and set up a darkroom in the house we lived in at Chapel Lane, with a makeshift studio in the sittingroom. The reporter for the New Ross Standard was Larry Larkin. I happened to meet him for the first time when Ted Kennedy came to New Ross in 1962 on a fact finding mission paving the way for a visit for JFK the following year.
‘Larry told me it was an opportunity to have some pictures published in the Standard. To my recollection I don’t know if any were published as I think Denis O’Connor arrived from Wexford to cover the event.’
PJ would arrive at dances in the Badminton Hall and take pictures of people and display them at a shop in South Street.
‘If people liked then they may buy. Eddie Prendergast supplied photographs to the paper on a freelance basis. I met the then manager of the People Newspaper in his office in Wexford and we agreed a price to supply photographs from the area. I would cover events and I would print and caption and take them to Larry Larkin. He would send his stories to Wexford editions. This went on for many years.’
Throughout PJ was working full-time with the ESB, He came to the attention of the Echo newspaper editor after the Wexford hurling senior final in O’Kennedy Park New Ross in 1964 between the Shamrocks and the Faythe Harriers.
He worked for The Echo covering all the major GAA events in the county and all around the country.
‘Their reporter Sean Whelan would travel to Croke Park, Thurles, Cork, Limerick, Athlone, Kilkenny, Carlow etc. This happened for some years. At that time photographers would camp along the end line waiting for action to come into view. I found that at some games little action came my way so I bought long lens 300mm so now I could go to the sideline and much more of the game’s action was available. I was the first provincial photographer in my area doing this.’
PJ was a regular at Croke Park and he was there in 1968 Wexford won both the minor and senior final. ‘The coverage from that event covered four pages because Wexford didn’t win many after that; it was 1996 before the next one. I was covering both the Echo and Standard for some years and the workload became too heavy so I stopped the sport and coverage for the Echo. I could now concentrate on the New Ross coverage and cover weddings also.’
Processing photos took a lot of time. ‘In the
past you processed the film, printed the photographs, added a caption and took the prints to the bus or Fasttrack on the train. That was for national coverage. I was now covering a lot of events for the Irish Press and Irish Independent, Cork Examiner and Herald. The urgency of getting the prints to the papers was very important by using bus, train and taxis.’
The photographs would be collected by couriers at the end stations.
‘I remember covering a story in Waterford when at a news conference Martin Cullen of the Progressive Democrats decided to join Fianna Fáil. That was a big story of the day. I did the event and sent the pictures on the Waterford bus that came through New Ross to Bus Áras. That was Friday and the then picture editor Brian Barron in the Irish Press was trying to contact me as they hadn’t arrived. My wife knew I would at the Horse and Hound for an event, Brian left a message to call him. I did and he said nothing arrived in Dublin. I explained that yes I put the package on the bus he said thanks. To my surprise the pictures were in the paper next morning; it seems the envelope was found in Naas that’s not on the route.’
Long before the digital age, land transport was the only way to get the coverage pics to the newspapers.
PJ often worked 15 hour days, starting his ESB job at 8 a.m. and his photography work in the evenings and nights.
‘I’d go home in between the two for dinner. Dinner dances would start at 10 p.m. and the photos were never taken before the meal so it would be midnight before you could get the pics.’
With nine children to support he said leaving the job in the ESB was a massive decision.
‘I had a good job with great job security but a competitor had come to town and I was going to lose the business. I had to weigh up how much more money I was going to make. I don’t think you could take a bigger plunge. Thankfully my children were never sick and I have been very lucky as I’ve never had much sickness.’
Photos had to be sent by bus or rail and any photos bound for Dublin were brought to Waterford station.
‘If it was a bank holiday the bus driver wouldn’t bring them so you had to source a courier and contact the picture desk and describe what the courier looked like for when the package was handed over. You had to buy a stamp for the envelope for some reason too.’
He said there was a great camaraderie between picture editors and all of the journalists and the photographers. ‘In all of my years I only ever had one hiccup. There was great respect and their word was their bond.’
PJ got great job satisfaction from his job, none moreso than when he got one over on a competitor.
‘There was a sense of achievement and of course you would have to have good pics. Today even a mugshot would make it in. Back then everything was a craft, even the captions. 80 per cent of that is gone now. At that time you had to be a professional to do the job. Today with mobile phones everyone seems to be a journalist. Anyone can look out through a lens and see a pic but it’s about telling a story with a picture.
‘My schooling was minimal. For captions I had to buy a typewriter and self learn. There was no hiding place.’
He approached every job the same; whether it was a tragedy, a sports club awards night or a massive sporting occasion in Croke Park.
‘It was a job but there was also a respect there because I often arrived on the scene of an accident that had just happened. You wouldn’t start shooting pics. You would wait and see. The firebrigade would have to clean the scene. You’d never point a camera directly at someone. I’ll never forget an accident on Begerin Hill. It was a badly designed road and an accident waiting to happen. Four people died. I took a photo that took in the scene and the wreckage in a way that explained the situation. The picture told the story. The worst of all was the search and rescue helicopter in Tramore.’
PJ pictured the crew on the day they arrived in Tramore.
‘I was at Waterford Airport on the day they launched the service. I had met the crew and did the pics of the four of them. Their helicopter was very dependable. They had come down from Ballyfin in Donegal and they had no knowledge of the area. I said: “the next time I will see you is when you’ll be searching for somebody”. Little did I know that there would be an SOS that night at 10.30 p.m. for someone on a trawler off the coast who had gotten sick. The helicopter was launched and went out to meet the boat out at sea. They assisted in the transfer into the lifeboat and was returning to Waterford but there was a pea-soup fog in which you couldn’t see your hand. They tried to land three times at Waterford Airport.’
PJ said the three beacons failed and the crew tried to land in a landscape they were unfamiliar with and crashed into sand dunes.
‘It just ploughed into the dune, imploded, then exploded. I heard the search and rescue helicopter was missing. It didn’t take a genius to figure out there was only one. I went down to Tramore and the place was cordoned off by the Air Corps.
‘I saw the helicopter that I had photographed
‘It’s all about knowing the territory, otherwise you are dead in the water’
the previous day and there was nothing, only the engine and a door. In tragic cases like that you have to detach yourself from the actual people. If you don’t you wouldn’t be able to do your job. It was a tragic situation and a man from Enniscorthy died. The pilot’s wife was having a baby. I met her at the anniversary with Mary McAleese. It’s a job and I always treated it as a job.’
Another photo shoot that stood out was when Prince Charles visited Lismore Castle. PJ was one of two press photographers allowed in to capture the occasion.
As a freelance photographer he covered from Arklow to Youghal and half of Tipperary and Carlow and Kilkenny. ‘The country was gridded so if there was an event there was nobody further than an hour away.’
His biggest scoop – one that saw his photo of a Hollywood celebrity travel all around the world – came when he used all his cunning to access a closed off movie location. A call to the movie’s PR office had resulted in a flat no to a request for access to the shoot.
‘On Saving Private Ryan the whole place was cordoned off. Unless you were a bird you weren’t getting a pic. There were no drones then. The pic was of Hanks in his army fatigues.’
Aware that the crew were planning to test the landing scene, PJ went into Wexford and saw the craft moored opposite White’s Hotel.
‘The wind got up so I thought they’d probably try something in the harbour. They were doing maintenance work on Wexford Bridge and on the other side they had a compound where they had their gear and access to a small port. I said that place would represent a beach. I parked my car not too far from the beach area. The only time you get information is if you are stupid. If you go up as a know all they will tell you where to go.
‘I went over to the site officer and asked if my car was in the way. He replied: “They won’t be coming down for an hour and a half ”. Now I knew everything and I was in position. The craft came slowly down the river. The FCA guys, who were extras, came out into the beach area. There was an ex marine there who pointed to one guy and said: “this is the murder hole here”. Four or five ran out into the beach. I saw an army guy overseeing the operation. I discreetly said that I was looking for someone.’
Having been told where the boat Hanks was on was located, PJ consulted with his son John Paul, who was an extra on the set. ‘He said: “Dad, he’s on your left shoulder”. I had been a foot away from him. He put up his hands as he thought I was meant to be there and I got a series of pictures.’
At this point PJ was asked by a senior staff member what he was doing and if he had spoken with the pr department.
PJ replied that he had. ‘He could have confiscated the camera. The next morning it was the headline in all of the nationals. The Irish Times had a lad buried in the dunes for three weeks and he rang me quite upset. It’s all about knowing the territory. Otherwise you are dead in the water.’
The photos were picked up by a British international news agency and appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the New Zealand Herald. ‘We had a nice holiday on that.’
Among his fondest memories are covering matches in Croke Park, knowing full well the nation would be pouring over them the next day at a time when daily newspaper readership figures ran into the millions.
‘From the first All Ireland I covered I developed relationships with the players. If you were following the ball you’d never get the pic. You were looking into their eyes watching the ball so you knew what they were going to do. Tony Doran was one of the best ever forwards. He’d be there with his back to goal. Nobody could stop him from getting the ball. Whoever marked him knew he’d turn right. When Pa Dillon marked him he’d always be there waiting for him. Everyone is repetitious. Everybody has a favourite thing they do and this is how you get good pictures. Now photographers just press down and take hundreds of images, ten shots a second. I had a wind on camera, so you had to literally wind on the film, throw open the shutter and do it again. I got up to two shots a second.’
All along PJ relished a challenge. ‘The biggest challenge was beating your competitors to the shot. They would mainly be the news guys who didn’t have the local knowledge. I would do it all of the time and I never missed a shot. If there was a guy avoiding the camera I got him. In later years when mobile phones became readily available I had one phone for transmitting images and one for talking because if someone rang you while transmitting it fecked you up. We’d be at the scene and we’d have to describe the tragedy to the picture editors as well. We were multitasking.’
PJ retired in 2008.
‘It was at my own choice because the depression was hitting and work was down but Mary and Pat are very capable of doing the job. It let them do their own thing and they would either sink or swim and thankfully they both swam very well.’
He loves seeing his old photos appear in the Reeling In The Years pages of the New Ross Standard.
‘Since the early days every negative was logged. Mary spent her after school work logging the pics. You would have a 35mm roll of film 5ft long and there could be 100 of them hanging. I was the only one who knew what they were. Today they are put into a computer and they archive them in the attic.’
Having turned 80 in December, PJ, who is living in Chonburi, Thailand, said he doesn’t miss the long days, preferring to spend his time golfing and playing the tourist in Thailand.
He is looking forward to getting home to New Ross.
‘I should have been back in June but the whole world got turned upside down. It’s 30 degrees here so I won’t complain.’
He estimates that over the 40 years of Browne’s Photography 2,500,000 images have been processed.
‘By 2008 when I finished there were 1,500,000. There are probably another million or more since.’