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July 2015 back issue
by John Bulmer
This book is from a series of assignments shot all over the world by John
Bulmer, many commissioned by the Sunday times.
The Wind of Change was the name of a famous speech made in Africa in
1960 by then Prime Minister Harold MacMillan.
It announced plans, already started by Britain, to grant independence to all
forms of colonial rule, not only in Africa but also worldwide.
There was huge opposition. The strongest in South Africa and Portuguese
territories but also in countries where Britain had granted a degree of self-
rule by white settlers, such as Kenya and Rhodesia. This later led to a UDI
(self declared racist independence) by the Whites in Rhodesia The Portuguese
hung on till 1975.
Liberia, where freed slaves from America settled and formed a black colonial regime even more oppressive than their
white brothers held on till 1980, and South Africa was not free till 1994.
The book takes us to other continents such as Latin America where the struggle for power, under the influence of the
Church, the communist World and the American influence was taking place.
This wind of change was a turbulence that was sweeping the whole World.
It is published by Bluecoat Press and contains over 200 photographs, over 90% in colour from 30 countries. It
documents the era in which colonial rule finally came to an end.
Bolivia. The Macha are Llama herders who live at 13,000 feet. They grow potatoes where it’s so cold that they can lay
them out at night and in the morning have freeze dried potatoes that will last for years. 1983
I went to Cambodia for the Sunday Times in 1968, before the Americans unlashed a series of events that led to such
terrible suffering. It seemed a paradise, although journalists were banned and had to smuggle film out of the country.
I went to China in 1973, by accident! We had missed a connection in Moscow to Pyongyang. It was still during the
time of the Cultural Revolution, but because we were not meant to be there I was able to wander the streets without a
minder for four days.
Cuba. This was for the Sunday Times in 1965. A writer and I were able to wander around South America for three
months on a series of assignments.
In 1964 I went to cover the civil war in Cyprus for the Sunday Times Paper. My friend Don McCullin turned up for the
Observer. He’d never covered a war before. I gave him a lift to a Turkish village that was being attacked by the Greeks.
Don loved it, and I took this shot of him helping an old lady to safety. It was the start of a great career as a war
photographer for him.
Ecuador. This was part of a story for the Sunday Times on the struggle for power in Latin America. The peasant bows
to the priest, and the priest to the Military, who were I power in Ecuador. 1965.
The day after Churchill’s funeral I was on a plane to Ethiopia and arrived at 8000 feet a couple of hours before the
Queen. Her arrival was bedlam, and I ran alongside her coach for a mile before I could get close enough for this shot
of her with Emperor Haile Selassie.
Ethiopia became one of my most favorite places, and I’ve been back a dozen times for both stills and film assignments.
This is Bati, later the scene of one of the worst famines in this great country. 1964.
This was part of two whole issues the Sunday Times did on France in 1976. I loved the French countryside, and this
was taken with a Russian 500mm lens adapted to a Nikon.
The North of France in 1976 was as bleak as the industrial North of England with as many coalmines. This was part of
the Sunday Times double issue on France.
After independence Ghana was a charming place, and full of beauty parlous where women went to lighten their skin,
straighten their hair and take on many of the attributes of their former colonial masters.
Kenya. This was part of a story for the Sunday Times in 1964 on The White Tribes of Africa, the whites still living in
many parts of Africa, many of them resisting the moves to independence.
On an assignment to New Guinea for Town in 1963 I ended up at this “Head Turning Ceremony” in the highlands. As
with a village dance in England somebody gets left out, and I loved the emotions expressed by the girl in the
background. The hut was very dark, and the roof blackened with soot, so I went outside and got a banana leaf and
tucked it into the roof to bounce my flash.
This was one of the last assignments I did for the Sunday Times in 1973. North Korea was a nightmare place and the
public, the writer and myself were ruthlessly regimented.
Romania was another of my favorite places, and in 1968 for Venture Magazine I was able to wander around without
supervision. This was a marriage festival on a mountaintop in the Carpathian Mountains.
South Africa. This was another picture from The White Tribes of Africa for the Sunday Times in 1964. This was a rugby
football match in the Afrikaans hinterland.
Dutch Guyana was a peaceful and pleasant place in 1965 with
different races living in harmony, surprising when you think what
happened in South Africa.
