Photographer in focus for his own exhibition

PRESS photographers are often invisible, their names rarely appearing beneath the pictures that define a story. Yet behind every striking image is someone who made a split-second decision, dashed into position or quietly waited for the perfect frame.

- LEWIS CLARKE

For Tiverton-based freelance photographer Mark Passmore, this instinct has been honed over a career spanning more than 25 years - a journey that has taken him from local newsrooms to national front pages, and now into the heart of his own community with a new exhibition.

Mark didn't take the conventional route into photography. In his 30s he returned to education as a mature student, first studying GCSE and A-level photography at Petroc College in Tiverton before completing an HND in media production at Plymouth College of Art & Design.

Alongside his studies, he cut his teeth with the Mid Devon Gazette and North Devon Journal.

"It was a good learning experience with a wide variety of press work," he recalls, noting the influence of experienced photographers such as Marcus Thompson.

After graduating in 1998, Mark joined Apex News & Pictures in Exeter. “It was a fast-paced and exciting place to work supplying pictures and stories to the nationals," he says. "An ideal place to learn my craft.”