Steve Bent, the photographer, who died on Christmas Day aged 53, covered the biggest foreign stories of the last 30 years for a host of Fleet Street newspapers; probably his most hair-raising exploits came in Iraq, where between 2003 and 2008 he lived and worked almost non-stop.
Many foreign journalists holed-up in Baghdad compounds or pulled out of Iraq altogether as, from early 2004, kidnappings and beheadings became grimly routine. Bent, though, refused to abandon his post. Though no risk-junkie, he calmly and relentlessly planned stories that he covered together with his wife, The Sunday Times journalist, Hala Jaber.
While she could rely on her fluent Arabic, however, there was no question of blending in for Bent, a blond, blue-eyed Mancunian. On one occasion, while covering an American offensive on Falluja in 2004, he was smuggled into the besieged city having dyed his hair and moustache a dark brown and wrapped in traditional dishdasha robes (he refused to apply to the brown contact lenses that had been bought for him). Having arrived safely, the risks only mounted, as he was forced to rely on local Iraqis to protect him from al-Qaeda fundamentalists who would have had no compunction about killing him.
Such willingness to put himself at risk induced heart palpitations in picture editors back in London, but they were always delighted when Bent filed his photos. When, in the early days of the American invasion, The Sunday Times overlooked one picture that Bent had filed (having shaken off his Iraqi ministry of Information minders) the paper came to regret it. The picture, of Ali Ismail Abbas, a boy left without arms by a US air strike that also killed his entire family, was picked up by others and was soon being beamed around the world. Ali was quickly dubbed “the face of the war”.
The pictures of which Bent was most proud often highlighted the suffering of children. Above all he was proud of a set taken in 1984, early on in his career, of the famine in Ethiopia. One shows an emaciated child carrying a baby, swollen by starvation, through caked, heavy mud. Their situation seems hopeless, and Bent found the events he witnessed there hard to deal with. But they made him determined, for the rest of his career, to report difficult truths from as close to them as he could get.
Steve Leigh Bent was born on August 13 1958, in Manchester. His parents, Hilda and Edward, ran a chain of fish and chip shops, which Bent later blamed for turning him off fish forever. He attended Acacia primary school, and Parrs Wood secondary school in Didsbury, before heading to Blackpool Photography College.
After graduating he started work with the John Pick photo agency in York, covering local news. He moved on to the Anglian Press Agency in Colchester but, from the outset, was clear that he wanted to find his way to Fleet Street as soon as possible. He enjoyed telling a story about how, as an ambitious but inexperienced young man, he once “door-stepped” the celebrated photographer Don McCullin, and asked for advice. McCullin told Bent to aim for the big stories, and to remember that the biggest stories were often in hard to reach places.
At the time there were few bigger stories than the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In 1980 Bent duly resigned his job, sold his car and his records, and bought a ticket to Kabul. When he returned five months later, it was to a freelancing job with the Daily Star.
Despite this, times remained tough, and Bent would spent days positioned in phone booths on Fleet Street, calling picture editors on spec to see if they needed him for a job. If they did and asked if he was close, he was able to respond: “I’m right outside.”
His breakthrough came in 1982 when he was taken on as a staff photographer for the newly-launched Mail on Sunday. Though he was not dispatched to cover the Falklands Conflict that year, he travelled to the Middle East for the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June, and reported for the paper on every major foreign story during the rest of the decade. Though he disliked the term war photographer, he was always to be found on the front line.
Apart from Ethiopia, he travelled to Uganda, Sierra Leone and throughout the Middle East, among many other hot spots. In 1989, however, he was asked to join the Sunday Correspondent, only for the new paper to fold after just a year; Bent returned to the Mail on Sunday. He covered the First Gulf War for the paper but, increasingly, wanted to live in the Middle East. In 1992 he moved with Hala Jaber to Beirut.
Life there was not as exciting as they had hoped and the couple returned to London the following year, where Bent again worked for the Mail, and then the Sunday Express. In 1998 he became deputy picture editor for the Evening Standard, though he hated being bound to a desk. His instinct to return to the field endured even as he remained in the office, for three years from 2000, for The Sunday Telegraph. With the war in Iraq then looming, though, the temptation to exchange the security of a steady job for the thrill of working on the road, particularly in a formidable partnership with his wife, proved too strong.
For her, as for the many journalists with whom he worked, Bent offered a calming, protective presence that was hugely welcome. Having survived the very extreme perils of Iraq, (on one occasion they had to be immediately airlifted out of the country after receiving reliable information that they were on the point of being kidnapped, tortured and executed) Steve Bent and Hala Jaber made their last trip to Baghdad in 2009. That year their reporting contributed to The Sunday Times Christmas appeal, in aid of Iraqi children wounded in the war; it has since raised more than £1 million.
Shortly afterwards, however, he was diagnosed with cancer. Typically, having been told of the gravity of the situation by his doctors, Bent arranged for further tests and treatments to be timed so that he could fly to Libya and work there for several weeks.
Apart from reporting, he enjoyed time spent in the pub with friends, preferably watching Manchester United win. His uncle, Geoff Bent, was among the players at the club who died in the Munich air disaster of 1958.
Steve Bent is survived by Hala Jaber, and by a son.
Steve Bent, born August 13 1958, died December 25 2011
At the time there were few bigger stories than the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In 1980 Bent duly resigned his job, sold his car and his records, and bought a ticket to Kabul. When he returned five months later, it was to a freelancing job with the Daily Star.
Despite this, times remained tough, and Bent would spent days positioned in phone booths on Fleet Street, calling picture editors on spec to see if they needed him for a job. If they did and asked if he was close, he was able to respond: “I’m right outside.”
His breakthrough came in 1982 when he was taken on as a staff photographer for the newly-launched Mail on Sunday. Though he was not dispatched to cover the Falklands Conflict that year, he travelled to the Middle East for the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June, and reported for the paper on every major foreign story during the rest of the decade. Though he disliked the term war photographer, he was always to be found on the front line.
Apart from Ethiopia, he travelled to Uganda, Sierra Leone and throughout the Middle East, among many other hot spots. In 1989, however, he was asked to join the Sunday Correspondent, only for the new paper to fold after just a year; Bent returned to the Mail on Sunday. He covered the First Gulf War for the paper but, increasingly, wanted to live in the Middle East. In 1992 he moved with Hala Jaber to Beirut.
Life there was not as exciting as they had hoped and the couple returned to London the following year, where Bent again worked for the Mail, and then the Sunday Express. In 1998 he became deputy picture editor for the Evening Standard, though he hated being bound to a desk. His instinct to return to the field endured even as he remained in the office, for three years from 2000, for The Sunday Telegraph. With the war in Iraq then looming, though, the temptation to exchange the security of a steady job for the thrill of working on the road, particularly in a formidable partnership with his wife, proved too strong.
For her, as for the many journalists with whom he worked, Bent offered a calming, protective presence that was hugely welcome. Having survived the very extreme perils of Iraq, (on one occasion they had to be immediately airlifted out of the country after receiving reliable information that they were on the point of being kidnapped, tortured and executed) Steve Bent and Hala Jaber made their last trip to Baghdad in 2009. That year their reporting contributed to The Sunday Times Christmas appeal, in aid of Iraqi children wounded in the war; it has since raised more than £1 million.
Shortly afterwards, however, he was diagnosed with cancer. Typically, having been told of the gravity of the situation by his doctors, Bent arranged for further tests and treatments to be timed so that he could fly to Libya and work there for several weeks.
Apart from reporting, he enjoyed time spent in the pub with friends, preferably watching Manchester United win. His uncle, Geoff Bent, was among the players at the club who died in the Munich air disaster of 1958.
Steve Bent is survived by Hala Jaber, and by a son.
Steve Bent, born August 13 1958, died December 25 2011
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