PAN reader Mo McFarland at the Daily Mail in London sent us the above advert for a photographic exhibition of ex Daily Mail staffer Jim Hutchison. The show runs – 27/10/23 to 30/11/23
Mo told PAN: “Jim was based in Manchester and Scotland for the newspaper and took some great photos”.
The show is in Carcassonne, France where Jim now lives. His daughter Patricia, a picture editor on the MOS at one time, is putting the show together and has been liaising with the Daily Mail library to source images.
Patricia sent PAN this: Jim Hutchison, just coming up to 85 years old, was a Daily Mail photographer for nearly all his working life, first from the Glasgow newsroom from 1962 to 1971, then based in Manchester from 1971 to his retirement in 2000.
He was born in 1938 in Stonehouse, near Glasgow, and developed his twin passions for sport – mainly football and boxing – and adventure through his father being Secretary of the Stonehouse Violets FC, and doing two years National Service (1958-1960) in the then Malaya.
He was already working as a photographer at the Hamilton Advertiser when he was called up, and was able to continue his trade as an Army photographer covering the Malayan Emergency communist insurgency, travelling extensively through the Far East, photographing conflict at close quarters in the jungle, but also personalities such as Lady Mountbatten.
Returning to Scotland after being demobbed, he was keen to expand his professional horizons by becoming a Daily Mail staffer, offering all the freelance football, boxing, and news coverage he could to the national daily, on top of his day job as an Advertiser staffer.
He was successful, and thus began a partnership he is proud of to this day.
Hundreds of football matches, golf tournaments, boxing matches, horse races, and athletics meets provided great, award-winning pictures. Muhammad Ali knocking out Richard Dunn in the 5th round; Nigel Clough on his knees in the snow, pleading with the referee; Seve Ballesteros deep in thought at Gleneagles and winning the Open at Saint Andrews, and one of the pictures he is still proudest of, the United fan at Anfield with a dart in his face, just missing his eye.
He loved his job, covering all kinds of sports and news events, whether involving tragedy, drama or a more light-hearted view of news and personalities.
Politicians and the royal family were of course included in his daily fare.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland kept him away from home for long, hard periods, and he was witness, with the front-page picture, to the tragedy at the Manchester Arndale Centre bombing.
Later, he picked up on a snippet his wife Julie, also a professional photographer, heard on the radio: WSPA was running a campaign to save bears being cruelly treated and forced to ‘dance’ on the streets of Istanbul. It was the beginning of a massively successful campaign run by the Daily Mail in association with WSPA featuring Jim’s photography. Tens of thousands of pounds were raised for the charity and Jim felt privileged to travel around the globe photographing the charity’s various campaigns, including saving the ‘Dogs of War’ left on the streets by the war in Kosovo.
Jim is a proud Scot and has always been a committed SNP supporter.
He has also always loved France – inspired by his French teacher when he was in his early teens who had the whole class sing the Marseillaise national anthem at every session.
On retirement he moved to France and he and his wife Julie have recently moved to a sheltered housing complex in the stunning historic city of Carcassonne, near their daughter and son-in-law.
He is not as adventurous these days, but still follows every football match he can, and loves to photograph the wildlife along the banks of the nearby River Aude.
Although his memory is fading a little with age, Jim’s years as a Daily Mail photographer are as real to him as ever, and he loves to reminisce about those days, so we suggested showing some of his pictures in the building where he and Julie live.
The whole event has taken on a life of its own.
The Daily Mail has been fantastically helpful with helping to find a lot of Jim’s old images, and we will be showing 60-odd pictures, in a magnificent Belle-Epoque setting.
The opening night, from 6pm on Thursday 26th October promises to be a great event, with the city council and tourist office supporting the exhibition, which is open to the public from 27/10/23 to 30/11/23.