Bob Carlos Clarke (1950 - 2006) 

Bob Carlos Clarke was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1950. In 1970 he  went to study graphics at the West Sussex College of Art, he later received an MA from the Royal College of Art. Since then he has worked as a photographer covering advertising work as well as personal assignments. 

John Claridge was born in West Ham, London, in 1944. He left school at fifteen to work for the McCann Erickson Agency. In 1963, at the age of nineteen, he set up his own photographic studio. John Claridge is best known for his highly individual and atmospheric advertising work. However he has also created two films and several books. 

McCabe was born in London in 1948. He worked as a freelance photographer before joining the Guardian as a general news photographer in 1976. McCabe joined the Observer in 1979 as a sports photographer and went on to win the Sports Photographer of the Year prize four times. In 1986 he became picture editor of Sportsweek but after six months the magazine stopped production and McCabe re-joined the Observer as Sports Picture Editor. For twelve years he was picture editor of the Guardian but he is now "back on the road" as a portrait photographer. 

Fi McGhee was born in Royston Hertfordshire in 1963. Her career started at the age of 19 when she turned down a place at Harrow to take up an assistant's job. Four years later she started up on her own doing editorial photography, moving on to advertising and portrait work. In 1988 she published a book of portraits called "Photographers and their Images". 

Parr was born in Britain in 1952. In the 1980's he produced a series of photographs reflecting vivid aspects of English urban and social life. Parr has made several documentaries with the BBC and is also a photographic lecturer. 

Saudek was born in Prague on the 13th May 1935. He studied at the School of Industrial Photography there between 1950 and 1952. Saudek became a corporal in the Czech Army and went on to become a freelance photographer. Saudek does not earn a living as a photographer and has always had other employment, but he was one of the first Czech photographers to become recognised in the West. 

Bernd (1931 - ) and Hilla (1934 - ) Becher

Bernd Becher was born in the Ruhr valley in 1931, Hilla was born in Potsdam in 1934, they were married in 1961. Hilla’s mother was a photographer and taught her the basic skills of photography. Together Bernd and Hilla developed a method of systematically photographing industrial structures, becoming guiding lights behind the objective school of photography. Although their images can be viewed individually they are often grouped together by type. Bernd and Hilla Becher take the clearest pictures possible, by eliminating distortion they capture engineering detail that pulls the viewer in for a much closer inspection. 

Macku is an experimental Czech photographer. In 1984 he completed his photographic studies in Prague and gained his first public exposure via numerous European exhibitions. His striking images of stretched and distorted figures are often created by peeling back the thin emulsion layer of the print. 

Sebastiao Salgado was born in south-western Brazil in 1944. He trained as an economist and moved to Paris in 1969 to continue his studies. He took up photography in the early 1970s. Sebastiao Salgado, a self taught photographer, is best known for his coverage of Third World social issues. He was a member of Magnum (1979 - 1994), in 1991 he documented the well-capping operations in Kuwait and in 1993 he finished a huge project on manual labour from around the world. 

Chris Steele-Perkins was born in 1947 in Rangoon, Burma. When he was a young boy his father brought him back to England. He started his photographic career in 1970 after graduating in psychology from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His first book, The Ted’s, documenting England’s Teddy Boys, was published in 1979. Increasingly Chris Steele-Perkins worked abroad, especially in the developing nations. In 1982 he joined Magnum, the prestigious photographic agency. 

Stoddart was born in Morpeth and is arguably the finest British photojournalist of his generation. His "Edge of Madness" exhibition and publication was the result of four years documenting the daily lives of  Sarajevo citizens. Stoddart has won a number of photographic awards including the General News section of the 1995 Work Press Photo Awards and in 1997 he received the Care International Award for Humanitarian Reportage.