John Downing

John Downing (1940-2020) was an award-winning photojournalist whose career spanned over five decades. As Chief Photographer on the Daily Express, he not only witnessed natural and man-made disasters, but also war zones and famine; he covered royal tours, political events, the famous and the infamous, the needy and the poor.

He won numerous awards, including the British Press Photographer of the Year an unprecedented seven times, the United Nations Gold Medal in 1990 and the International Photographer of the Year in 1994 (La Nation, Argentina). 

In 1992 he was honoured with an MBE for ‘Services to Journalism’; in 2001 he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the UK Picture Editors Guild and in 2011 he received an Honorary Fellowship of The Royal Photographic Society.