As a 24 year old wannabe walking into the Reuters office in London for the first time in 1993 the only thing I knew was that I wanted to shoot pictures, I just wasn’t sure what kind. This was a whole new experience and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I didn’t even know what a news agency was, but what I did know was that if they took just one frame from my camera and put it on the wire, I would get paid. Over the following months I began to learn something else. What constitutes a news photograph. And by that I mean a picture that is so powerful it makes you gasp or gives you goosebumps.

Following the tragic deaths in a minibus crash of ten pupils and a teacher from a Roman Catholic High School in 1993, Dylan Martinez produced one such picture from his file. If ever a picture said a thousand words this is it.

Andre Camara’s picture of the devastation that was caused after two bombs exploded in London in 1993 is another.

Eric Camoin’s image of the French anti-terrorist forces moving into position on a hijacked Air France Airbus and successsfully liberating 160 passengers is another such image that made me look at it over and over again, imagining what must have happened once those forces stepped through the aircraft door.

Again Dylan Martinez’s harrowing pictures from the Genoa summit of the protestor in the last seconds of his life before being shot dead by a police officer have the same effect. Brutal, raw images that deliver a monumental impact every time you look at them.

But death, human suffering and destruction should not be considered the only ingredients in the makeup of a great news photograph. Take Russell Boyce’s picture of former British Prime Minister John Major or Kevin Lamarque’s picture of Conservative leadership contender Michael Portillo who having held the seat since 1984, lost to the man grinning behind him, Labour’s Stephen Twigg.

  Both these images have a different but nonetheless significant impact in that  they were both moments that passed in the blink of an eye which no-one would have seen had the photographer not captured them. The essential key to any great news picture.To me these are a few of the news pictures that graced the Reuters wire early and later on in my career and that have the same impact on me no matter when or how often I look at them. They are a constant reminder as to why I became a news photographer. These are not the pretty, beautifully lit and exquisitely framed photographs that we see in abundance on the wires now. These are the no frills, raw, rough edged, grainy, sometimes badly lit, soft or slightly over exposed images that deliver on all counts. Photographers working and producing in every imaginable situation and then some. These are news images that stand the testament of time and show the impact that photographers, who have the ability to catch these fleeting moments, weild with their cameras. It is little wonder that I wanted to immerse myself into this industry. The adrenalin rush is intoxicating.

 If you are a wannabe out there reading this blog, maybe they will have a similar impact on you. In my humble opinion, these are as good as it gets.