Tom Stoddart
Photographer whose unforgettable pictures ranged from Lady Diana to the war in Yugoslavia
TOM STODDART, who has died of cancer aged 67, was a photojournalist who captured imperishable images from hotspots around the world, his assignments taking him from the heart of Westminster to the Aids crisis in Africa and the Siege of Sarajevo.
An episode he would frequently relate was how in April 1987 he accompanied the Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin to Beirut in an attempt to find the whereabouts of Terry Waite, the Church of England envoy who had been kidnapped. Their search was getting nowhere, but the pair did hear of another potential story, a Palestinian refugee camp besieged by Amal, a Syria-backed militia.
Travelling out of the Lebanese capital to Bourj al-barajneh, Stoddart negotiated with the commander of the group a 60-second window to dash into the camp. Holding hands, Stoddart with a full bag of cameras and film, the two colleagues ran straight towards the opposing Palestinians shouting: “British journalists, don’t shoot” in Arabic at the top of their voices.
One photograph he was able to smuggle out (the film hidden in Colvin’s bra) showed the danger: two young women dragging a friend from the so-called “Path of Death”, her feet lifeless on the rocky ground, after she had been shot in the head and abdomen.
Inside, they found two British nurses trapped in the camp in appalling conditions where some people had resorted to eating rats. Another of Stoddart’s images shows Dr Pauline Cutting staring at the camera accusingly as a group battles to save another life. Colvin and Stoddart’s splash made waves, and within weeks the camp was liberated and the Red Cross moved in.
Tom Stoddart was born on November 28 1953 in Morpeth, Northumberland. His father, Thomas, was a farm worker for the Duke of Northumberland; his mother Kathleen (née Turnbull) stayed at home to bring up Tom and his sister Alicia.
After Seahouses Secondary Modern, aged 17 Stoddart joined the Berwick Advertiser as a trainee. In 1978 he left the North East for London and began picking up work with both The Sunday Times and Time magazine. Later he took some striking photographs for the Telegraph, including an awardwinning one of a Chinese child gymnast in training.
One of his earliest scoops was a snapshot of a young Lady Diana Spencer – as speculation buzzed about her relationship with the Prince of Wales – her mouth open in surprise having stalled her Mini Metro while setting off for work from her Earl’s Court flat.
Stoddart’s pictures from aboard the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in 1981, as the group attempted to stop a Canadian seal pup cull, were published around the world and he went on to cover the occupation of Greenham Common in 1983 and the battle between police and striking miners at Orgreave in 1984. Later assignments in Britain included royal weddings, and he shot exclusive behind-the-scenes images of Tony Blair’s 1997 election campaign, as well as of David Cameron’s administration.
In 1989 Stoddart was covering growing protests against the East German government in Berlin for Time. Forced to return to London, he was convinced that something momentous was about to happen, but was unable to persuade his editors to fund another trip. “It was a question of backing my judgment with my own money,” he recalled. In London he obtained another East German entry visa and was soon back on a plane.
As he took a taxi across the divided city, with the radio on, the driver suddenly stiffened and said the wall had been breached. Stoddart recalled arriving to find “two middle-aged women coming towards me. Their hands were clasped to their faces and they were crying tears of joy and disbelief. They were possibly the first from the East to cross to the West at Checkpoint Charlie that night, the first to experience freedom.” His images of that night show similar scenes of jubilation: a middle-aged man with tears in his eyes, as his denim-clad friend punches the air; grinning young men chiselling at the concrete border; vain attempts by East German security to stop the crowds with a water cannon.
In 1992 Stoddart was seriously injured in Sarajevo. He was crossing open ground near the parliament during heavy shelling when an explosion occurred just metres away. He spent three days in hospital, much of the time on a stretcher in the corridor waiting for the electricity to come back on so he could be X-rayed. His injuries kept him off work for a year.
Some two years later Stoddart had his first exhibition at the Visa pour l’image festival of photojournalism in Perpignan, France, featuring his pictures from Bosnia. It included the photograph he would often claim as his favourite: a woman in a chic business dress, her hair and make-up immaculate, walks past a huge wall of sandbags; in the foreground a soldier is seen with a gun slung round his neck. Stoddart would include the image of defiance in Extraordinary Women (2020), which also featured work from assignments including the end of apartheid and the wars against Saddam Hussein.
Reflecting on the book’s theme, he said: “When things are really tough, it’s the women and girls in families [who] put their shoulders to the wheel, show courage and get things done.”
Stoddart is survived by his wife Ailsa, whom he married in 2015.
Tom Stoddart, born November 28 1953, died November 17 2021