Who's Stu
Cards on the table, I've been around a bit ...
Early in my career, it became evident that I was far better suited to life behind the camera than in front of it - a sentiment that, so far, has gone unchallenged.
I quietly left school having successfully failed at everything, and talked my way into becoming a member of the lighting crew at The Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End. The production at the time was 'Evita'.
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A few years later, after leaving the West End, I was working at a small independent lighting hire company in Surbiton, and due to my theatrical experience, was selected as the lighting board operator for Monty Python's final film, The Meaning Of Life, which was shot at Elstree.
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Andover-based Link Electronics were the UK's last surviving television camera manufacturers who also had a department that rented General Electric PJ5055 video projectors - along with engineers to operate them. Nearly every popular television show in those days used one as part of the set, and once trained up, I was dispatched to the BBC on Wood Lane to work on The Late, Late Breakfast Show with Noel Edmonds, and Wogan, at the Shepherd's Bush Theatre.
Starvision was billed as the world's largest mobile TV screen, and in direct competition with the Mitsubishi Diamond Vision, that had been seen either side of th estate on Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985. As a member of the Starvision crew, we worked on Queen's Live Magic shows at Wembley the following year, where the screen was mounted above the stage.
During the 80s I taught myself to edit on a 2-machine VHS suite and had been playing around with video cameras, but as we rolled over into the 90s, I wangled myself a job as a cameraman and VT editor at an independent television facility in Westminster. After somewhat of a disastrous start, I was given a second chance to prove myself - which I did.
Two years down the line I joined Sky News in Osterley, and was sent on multiple assignments to Bosnia and then to South Africa to witness Nelson Mandela’s historic election win.
In 1994, in advance of their global launch, the Associated Press (AP) offered me the role of Production Director where I trained the next generation of multi-skilled operators in news camera and VT editing techniques.
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By 1997 I was itching to get back in the field, so the AP relocated me to Paris. I had only been there 5 months when Princess Diana was involved in that fatal accident at the Pont de l'Alma tunnel. I was on-scene within an hour of the crash. The following year, the FIFA World Cup circus came to town and as the millennium ticked around, I was embedded with a CNN team reporting on the Kosovo conflict.
Over the next decade, the BBC sent me out into the Atlantic to capture Ellen MacArthur crossing the finish line after her record-breaking solo circumnavigation in the Vendée Globe. I also shot a variety of segments for BBC flagship programmes Newsnight and Panorama.
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Expanding my skill set, I transitioned into news and editorial stills photography, where I was fortunate to have been represented by NTI (UK), World Picture News (NY), and Le Desk (Paris). Primarily, I shot stories for leading anglophone publications including breaking news and current affairs in and around Paris.
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Balancing my work between television and photography, I embraced the opportunity to lecture at the École Supérieure de Journalisme, equipping students with practical skills for real-world news production.
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After nearly two decades in France, I returned to the UK, where I continue to pursue news and editorial photography with the same passion and dedication that has defined my career.
