John Jones

John Jones is described as ‘one of the great innovators of modern press photography’. He was the inaugural winner of the Nikon Australian Press Photographer of the Year in 1969, setting the benchmark, and establishing a style that others followed.

Jones rose to be picture editor of the Sunday Telegraph in Sydney. As an administrator, he was mentor to generations of photographers, journalists and editors. In an occupation where many were professional nomads, John was a rarity.

He started as a copy boy at the age of 14 on the Sunday Telegraph in 1939. He was still there as its picture editor 50 years later. He was appointed pictorial editor in 1976, retiring in 1990.

News Limited chairman and chief executive John Hartigan, a former editor-in-chief of the Sunday Telegraph, regarded John as the most professional photographer he ever met. ‘Coming from an era when the photographers were often more colourful than their subjects, John stood tall,’ he said.

Jones died in 2008 after being ill with cancer.

Sources:

• 'Acclaimed News photographic editor dies',Daily Telegraph, 18 June 2008, p. 15.
• Ern McQuillan,Spike Jones with Graflex camera of Daily Telegraph photographer John Jones, Kingsford Smith Airport, 18 Mar 1955,Australian Photographic Agency (APA) Collection : Sydney people, places and events, 1953-1987, State Library of New South Wales http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10021073
• William Boyd, screen name, Hopalong Cassidy, with Sydney press photographers Jack Dabinett, Ern McQuillan, Ken Issitt, John Tanner and John Jones, at Mascot airport, Sydney, 1954National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3562115