Scottish-born photojournalist Harry Benson arrived in America with The Beatles in 1964. Harry has photographed every US president from Dwight D Eisenhower to George W Bush; was just feet away from Bobby Kennedy the night he was assassinated; in the room with Richard Nixon when he resigned; on the Meredith march with Martin Luther King Jnr; next to Coretta Scott King at her husband’s funeral; on manoeuvres with the IRA; was there when the Berlin Wall went up and when it came down; and covered the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans.
Harry was honoured with a Doctor of Letters from the Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow University in 2007. Twice named NPPA Magazine Photographer of the Year, Harry received the 2005 Lucie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Portrait Photography; the 2005 American Photo Magazine Award for Achievement in Photography; the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Scottish Press Photographers Association; and has twice received the Leica Medal of Excellence. He has had 40 solo gallery exhibitions – including a major retrospective exhibition of his photographs at Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow, in 2008 – and 13 books of his photographs published.
Under contract to LIFE magazine from 1970 to 2000, Harry is presently contracted to Vanity Fair magazine, and he photographs for Architectural Digest, Newsweek and many other major magazines.
Harry lives in New York with his wife, Gigi, who works with him on his book and exhibition projects. Their two daughters, Wendy and Tessa, live and work in Los Angeles.
Personally selected photos from Harry Benson’s archive appear in the Opus.
Angela Catlin (www.angelacatlin.com) first came to notice as a young photographer with her book Natural Light, a collection of 49 portraits of Scottish authors. The book, critics said, set a benchmark for work of its type. She became a staff photographer with Scotland’s leading newspaper The Herald, winning many awards, before beginning a freelance career.
Her work has taken her to trouble spots all over the world including Syria, Rwanda, Gaza, Cambodia, Columbia, Guatemala and Haiti. She also covered the devastating impact of the tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. An exhibition of her work ‘Life After Iraq’, documenting the plight of Iraqi refugees has been running at the Museum of Religious Life in Glasgow.
Her love of football is in her genes – her grandfather Ted Catlin played for Sheffield Wednesday and England. And the team she supported growing up was Celtic so she enjoyed the opportunity to be a fly on the wall at the marvellous new training centre in Lennoxtown.
Angela Catlin shot ‘The Dream Factory’ photo essay.
Adam Elder took a degree in Photographic Arts from 1985 to 1988. And learned nothing! He subsequently worked as a photo-printer at Scotland on Sunday newspaper and then joined as a staff photographer, becoming the youngest ever winner of Sports Photographer of the Year in 1991. Several other awards for sports photography followed while working at the paper until 2000 when he left to run his picture agency, Scottish Viewpoint, which is the largest resource of Scottish- based photography in the world. He is now Official Photographer for the Scottish Parliament and teaches photography at Stevenson College in Edinburgh.
Adam Elder took the photographs for the title page and final page of the Opus, an exclusive picture inside ‘The Huddle’, insider photos for ‘The Secret Army’ and the Neil Lennon interview and the Celtic Park time sequence pictures.
After a two-year stint at art college, Sydney-based George Fetting worked in newspapers, but after a decade and a half got some sense and has freelanced ever since.
He specialises in portraits and travel and has won a number of national and international prizes, including the 2008 Australian Travel Photographer of the Year award. He has worked for Travel + Leisure, Time, The Sydney Morning Herald and a number of advertising clients. George’s favourite assignments are travel-related commissions, and one of his portraits taken in Cuba has been selected by National Portrait Gallery as part of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize to hang in London in November 2008.
George Fetting photographed Celtic fan Linda Tully for ‘We are Celtic Supporters’.
David’s obsession with the black-and-white still image developed in his early teens observing the posters and photographs on the walls of the boxing clubs where he trained. Aged 16, he got fed up with being punched, but still loved the atmosphere and characters in the boxing world, so he returned to the clubs with a camera and started to take photographs.
In the late 1990s, David won a couple of local photographic competitions with his documentary street scenes of Glasgow life and began to secure regular commissions from several of Scotland’s leading broadsheet newspapers and magazines, whilst juggling his day job in the construction industry.
Through regular commissions, David further developed as a photographer and was able to quit his full-time employment in 1999 and devote all of his time and energy to long-term photographic projects which interest him. He has since won numerous honours including Photo Essay of the Year at the 2007 Scottish Press Photography Awards and the 2005 UNICEF Photo of the Year.
In September 2008, he was one of just three photographers selected from among 153 applicants from 26 countries to receive a $20,000 grant offered under the Getty Images Editorial Grant Programme to fund his latest project, focusing on the culture of violent knife crime in his home city, Glasgow.
David married Kirsty in 1999 and has two sons, Cameron Jack (aged six), and Brodie Mac (four).
David Gillanders shot the ‘The Road to Paradise’ photo essay.
Jeff Holmes began his photographic career while still at school… which didn’t always go down well with his teachers! After cutting his teeth on a local newspaper in the Home Counties, he moved across the border to work for a small press agency in Scotland. From there a spell of celebrity spotting beckoned as he spent a few years in the South of France with a press agency covering high-profile events such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix.
On his return to Scotland, Jeff linked up with former colleague and friend Jim McCann to form SNS Group, which is now the top independent sports and corporate photographic agency in Scotland covering events at home and abroad for a host of media clients and blue-chip companies.
Jeff Holmes photographed Celtic chairman John Reid and Hoopy the Huddle Hound.
Scott Hunter has an unusual view of life. When people are crowding around to shoot something important, you can bet he’s photographing them doing it, or facing the other way, looking at something everyone else has missed.
Images are his life. As a professional retoucher, his attention to detail helps when he’s behind the lens, fixing or moving things before shutter release that most people would leave to the “forgotten ones in the retouching studio”.
After qualifying as a graphic designer, a lengthy trail of photographing products, mock-ups and the odd stock shot replacement to keep costs down for whatever agency he was with, his love of images was rewarded when he joined O Hub Limited, the digital origination house for Kraken Opus, allowing him to work with some of the best images around.
Scott Hunter shot the oblique views of Celtic Football Club that appear on the chapter title pages and the endpapers.
John Ingledew’s photographs have appeared in The Observer, The Times, The Sunday Times and The Mail on Sunday. He has worked for numerous magazines, newspapers, design groups and agencies and photographed everything from open-heart surgery to Oscar winners. The author of four photographic books – most recently, And Now You’re going to Believe us (2007) – John is course leader in Editorial and Advertising Photography at The University of Gloucestershire and a visiting Lecturer at The Dong Hau University in Shanghai, China.
John Ingledew photographed Gordon Strachan behind the scenes and Hoopy the Huddle Hound on the pitch at Celtic Park.
Richard Legge discovered photography during a trip to Germany at the age of ten to visit his uncle, an art teacher, on an army camp. His uncle showed him his camera, talked the youngster through the basics, and that was that.
After pursuing his interest at school and via a degree at Norwich School of Art, Richard began assisting in London, notably Saul Fletcher, the art photographer. His first big break came when he was asked to shoot a music portfolio for Vanity Fair, photographing, among others, So Solid Crew, Beth Orton and Ms Dynamite. He now does mainly portrait work in the fields of music, acting and sport.
Richard Legge photographed Dermot Desmond and Henrik Larsson.
Russell Lee was born and brought up in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, where he developed a love of photography in his teens. He studied photography and film at university before moving to London where he started to work as a music photographer. Picture agency Millennium Images took on his portfolio and his work was subsequently used to illustrate articles and features (as well as front covers) in New Scientist magazine, and various educational book covers.
Russell has also been commissioned to do shoots for publishers such as Random House and Faber while continuing to have his work published in various magazines such as Time Out and Kerrang!. A keen musician, Russell has travelled as far afield as Japan to perform at festivals, and never forgets to take his camera with him.
The Celtic Opus is the fourth Opus Russell has worked on.
Russell photographed Martin O’Neill, Jilli Blackwood, Lou Macari, John Colquhoun, and eight of the fans who appear in the ‘We are Celtic Supporters’.
Simon Murphy decided on a career in photography when, after leaving school and working as a postman, his boss approached a colleague with a tie to mark 25 years’ service. ‘25 years for a tie! I’m getting out before I get mine!’, he thought.
He specialises in portraits of actors, musicians and, now, footballers, his sitters including John Hurt, Gordon Ramsay, David Gray, Paolo Nutini, David Hasselhoff and Henrik Larsson. “Shooting for the Celtic Opus has been a fantastic experience,” Simon says. “Photographing the greats of past Celtic teams has been the highlight, especially the day I took my brother Stef along to a golf trip with the ‘Lisbon Lions’.
“Another highlight was the shoot with Charlie Nicholas and Frank McAvennie. I brought along a couple of bottles of champagne and glasses to get the party started. I shouldn’t have bothered with the glasses as the boys got tucked into the champagne straight from the bottles! That combined with Frank’s stories – I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard!”
Simon, 31, is married to Beth and lives in Glasgow.
Simon Murphy photographed all the living Lisbon Lions (including portraits for ‘Secrets of the Lisbon Lions’, the Lisbon Lions gatefold images and various interviews). His portraits of John Divers Jnr, John Hughes, Agnes Johnstone, Danny McGrain, Dixie Deans, Davie Provan, Charlie Nicholas & Frank McAvennie are also featured. Simon also photographed Gordon Strachan and various members of the current Celtic squad for the image that appears at the start of the ‘Modern Times’ chapter.
London-based photographer Chris Nash has been photographing dance professionally for the last 25 years, producing poster and publicity images for a long list of clients from the contemporary and classical dance worlds, as well as fashion and advertising assignments. Chris has exhibited across the globe and has built a reputation as ‘our most imaginative interpreter of Dance’ (The Guardian). He was recently given a prestigious NESTA Dreamtime award, in order to take time out from a busy career to concentrate on more personal projects.
Chris has been an ardent follower of football for many years and long ago made the association between moves made on the pitch and those made on the stage. His project for the Opus has been a great chance to translate that correlation into images, trying to capture that combination of grace and power common to both disciplines.
Chris Nash photographed the ‘Leap of Faith’ gatefold.
Brian Smith, of Boston MA divides his assignments between corporate work and editorial portraits. His work has been published in many of the largest consumer magazines such as Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, Time and Newsweek. He has produced several coffee-table books on American colleges showing the institutions in all aspects of their mission.
When not on assignment, Brian spends his free time in the summer sailing his catboat along the shores of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
Brian Smith photographed Fergus McCann at his modest office in Boston for the Opus.
At the end of the Sixties, man set foot on the moon and Mrs Sutton-Hibbert gave birth to Jeremy in Scotland, where on his 13th birthday he received the gift of a camera. A few years later, Jeremy became a UK-based freelance photographer for editorial, corporate and NGO clients.
Fourteen winters on, deciding the Scottish light was too grey and the winters too dark, and wishing to bring colour into his life, he relocated to Tokyo, Japan.
He is best known for his multi-year project documenting life in a Roma gypsy camp in Romania, but undertakes assignments for many editorial clients, and travels worldwide photographing on expeditions for Greenpeace. His work has appeared in magazines such as Time, The Sunday Times Magazine and National Geographic, been exhibited in Europe, Asia and the USA, and can be seen at www.jeremysuttonhibbert.com
Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert’s archive pictures illustrate ‘The Battle to Save Celtic’ and his photo of Celtic fan Asuke Anan appears in ‘We Are Celtic Supporters’.
In 1996, Andrew Wu (www.andrewwuphotography.com) immigrated to Edinburgh with his family. Having taken pictures for over 25 years as a hobby, Andrew went back to college in 1998 and spent four years studying full time. He became a freelance photographer while he was still a student.
Andrew won the British Institute of Professional Photography Gold Award of National Print Awards of Scotland in 2001, and was admitted to Associateship of BIPP the following year.
Andrew takes pride in the high quality of his photography, using cutting-edge technology to shoot from all angles, high and low, near and far, to suit the environment and capture the special mood. His clients include: The Scottish Parliament, Coca-Cola, Orange Mobile, Nokia, John Menzies, Reader’s Digest, Hiya! magazine, Business in Scotland magazine, The Sunday Herald, The Scotsman and Scottish Life magazine.
Andrew Wu photographed memorabilia, trophies and medals.
Geoff Young (geoffreyyoung.co.uk) started taking photos with a very cool Polaroid Land camera his grandfather gave him for his birthday in 1970-something. Three decades later, having spent 14 of those years ‘doing something else’ (and a year whale-watching in the Atlantic), he retrained combining a degree in photography with assisting the great and the good in interiors (Chris Drake), lifestyle (Polly Wreford) and fashion/ celebrity portraits (Alex Reilly).
From there, his own photography career has embraced everything from shooting shoes on window sills to centenarian World War One veterans, children in India recovering from the tsunami to former prime minister’s wives, plus numerous celebrities and sportspeople including Ricky Tomlinson, Keith Allen, Dido, Henry Cooper and British NBA superstar Luol Deng.
Geoff Young photographed Scott McDonald.
Marisa Zanotti is filmmaker, choreographer and academic. Having worked extensively in contemporary dance she began directing drama in 2003 when she was invited to direct David Greig’s play San Diego, a work commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival and The Tron Theatre.
Marisa’s work in film has international standing and her first short drama At the End of the Sentence, received BAFTA and BIFA nominations and won a UK Film Council Audience Award, and best short at the Hamptons Film Festival. Her new short Being Norwegian is in post-production. Marisa is currently developing a feature script, Blackwaterside, with David Greig and Oxygen Films with funding from the UK Film Council. She is a senior lecturer at University of Chichester.
Marisa Zanotti choreographed the images that appear on the ‘Leap of Faith’ gatefold.
Having studied at Batley College of Art "so long ago that it was still the West Riding of Yorkshire", Philip Bannister now lives in deepest Worcestershire from where he has worked as an illustrator for over 20 years.
Whether working for The Folio Society, The National Trust, Condé Nast or The Daily Telegraph, Philip still enjoys the spontaneous feel of making marks on ‘’old fashioned paper’’. Traditional illustration techniques in watercolour or ink remain, for him, the most impassioned and vivacious.
Philip Bannister’s illustrated ‘The Johnstone Mysteries’ feature.
Artist Jilli Blackwood (http://www.jilliblackwood.co.uk) created her trademark ‘slash and show’ tapestry technique while still a student at Glasgow School of Art (1982-86) and has been refining and developing it ever since.
A textile is expected to behave in a certain way, to be laid across a bed, to clothe and protect from the elements or to flutter in the sky proclaiming a nation’s existence. Jilli wants her fabrics to be looked at in contrast to their surroundings and to challenge the viewer to rethink their perceptions of the function of fabric, something she has certainly achieved with her exclusive commissioned work for the Celtic Opus.
Jilli Blackwood created ‘The Huddle’ tapestry.
After gaining a degree in illustration in Dundee, Scottish caricaturist Steven Carroll honed his skills in Majorca as editorial illustrator for two daily newspapers. Six days a week of deadlines gave him valuable experience which led to four years at The Scotsman in Edinburgh, where his weekly portraits and caricatures of the newsworthy were a popular feature. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has five of his caricatures of politicians in its permanent collection. Specialising in pen and ink, colour pencil and scraperboard, his freelance work includes regular commissions for The Economist, Mojo, Reader’s Digest and The Independent on Sunday.
“To be asked to draw the ‘Quality Street Gang’ and the saviour of Celtic, Fergus McCann, was an exciting commission to fulfil,” he says. “The large pages allowed for greater attention to detail and after completing McCann’s portrait, I felt I knew his face better than he does himself!”
Steven Carroll produced illustrations of the ‘Quality Street Gang’ and Fergus McCann.
Iain Clark is attracting media attention and artistic recognition for his unique portraits of celebrities. The fact that many of these celebrities are also his friends has enabled him to adopt a relaxed and intimate approach. Such an approach has borne fruit: two of his portraits have gone into the permanent collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
It is, however, his passion for people that has led to his recent ascent as a much in-demand portrait artist. “I am fascinated by the human condition and the huge variety of faces that I see every day,” he says. “I believe that each and every one of us is unique and special. When I work on a portrait I strive to bring out something of the sitter’s soul.
“Many artists use cameras to create images; they have done so since photography came into existence. There is no better way to capture a true likeness. There are, however, also many limitations. My use of colour as a means of portraying my subjects is paramount to the way I work. All people have an aura but not everyone is aware of that. When I am working with my subjects I have to be able to pick up on that and translate it into my portraiture.”
Iain Clark’s created images in his unique style of James MacMillan CBE and George Connelly, and his conventional photographs of Tony Conroy and a group of student fans appear in the ‘We are Celtic Supporters’ feature.
Malky McCormick is Scotland’s best-known cartoonist and caricaturist. He was born in 1943 near Hampden Park, Scotland’s national football stadium. This immediately gave him a sense of the ridiculous!
After leaving the commercial art world in 1965, he illustrated comics for D C Thomson in Dundee then became a graphic designer with Scottish Television. In 1975, along with pal and fellow banjo player Billy Connolly, he devised and wrote a hugely successful comic strip for The Sunday Times. Simultaneously, he played with skiffle band ‘The Vindscreen Vipers’, gigging in Scotland, abroad and on television.
Malky has contributed to most major UK newspapers, including The Sun, Daily Record, Daily Express, the Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph and New Statesman, and his work has illustrated many major national advertising campaigns.
His skill at producing instant caricatures has seen him invited to corporate events in Jamaica, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Romania, Kuwait, India, Russia and New Zealand. For ten years, he was resident cartoonist on ITV quiz show Win, Lose or Draw.
He works from the Ayrshire village of Waterside and is very proud to be part of the Celtic Opus. Like ‘The Bhoys’, Malky McCormick always draws a big crowd!
Malky McCormack’s exclusive cartoon appears in the ‘Modern Times’ chapter.
Whilst at Art College, Kim McGillivray (www.kimfolio.com) dreamt of designing book covers. He has since provided cover illustrations to major publishers in the UK, North America and Europe, creating pieces to complement the works of Iain Banks, Peter Carey, Gil Scott Heron and Irvine Welsh among others. In addition, Kim has created covers, feature spreads and weekly spots for prominent newspapers and magazines. His commercial commissions have gained nominations for design and advertising awards and he is represented by agents in New York, London and Europe. Clients include Random House, Penguin, Time Warner, Condé Nast, The Independent, The Sunday Times, BBC Worldwide and BP.
Kim McGillivray’s illustrations appear with ‘The Ghost of Brother Walfrid’ and ‘The Battle of Montevideo’ features.
Walter Iooss Jr is one of the world’s foremost sports photographers. Born in Texas in 1943 and raised in New Jersey, Iooss undertook his first assignment for Sports Illustrated in 1961, and his photographs have since graced the cover of the celebrated American sports magazine more than 300 times. In the course of his illustrious career, Iooss has photographed almost every major sporting personality of the past 40 years, from Muhammad Ali to Björn Borg to Pele. He has had 13 books published, including Rare Air, his photo biography of Michael Jordan which reached number one in the New York Times bestseller list. In 2004 he won a Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports Photography at the prestigious Lucie Awards.
Graduating with honours in graphic design from Coventry University, Zenon Texeira formed Kraken Creative in 2005 with Howard Forrester and Karl Fowler. To date his studio has designed United Opus, Super Bowl XL Opus, Arsenal Opus and the Vivienne Westwood Opus. He has contributed photographically to various Opus editions, capturing sporting legends associated with Formula 1, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis tournament, and now Celtic, on the Polaroid 20 x 24 camera.
Jan Hnizdo, the owner and operator of the Polaroid 20 x 24, was born in 1945 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and was taught photography by his father. In 1982, Hnizdo emigrated to Germany, where he was employed by Polaroid as a curator of the International Polaroid Collection, moving on to become a Polaroid 20 x 24 photographer a year later. In 1993, he went freelance and opened a 20 x 24 studio in Prague.
He has been involved in several shoots for the Opus collection, including Formula One drivers and the Manchester United and Arsenal squads.