The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Oct 2015 back issue
by Patrick Ward
These photographs were made in the early 1960s while on assignments for the then newly created Sunday Times
Magazine. They were shot in Latin America, Sicily and Mexico and were all published within one year by the
magazine. They were originally shot mostly in colour but the slides have really faded over the past fifty years and re-
visiting them now in black and white versions has given them a new and deeper meaning for me. Although I had my
Leicas loaded with Ektachrome colour film I can’t help feeling that, even then, I was really seeing these countries, with
their stark conditions and dark beauty, in shades of black and white.
I travelled in Latin America for some three months, in Sicily for a fortnight and in Mexico for six weeks. I suspect that
only National Geographic would now offer a photographer the luxury of spending so much time on assignment, but
the Sunday Times back then was really committed to commissioning original work, rather than buying it in, so I was
fortunate to be working with them during those years.
I would have been in my mid twenties when I took these pictures, very much an innocent abroad, trying to run before I
could walk. Still, innocence and ignorance, especially when setting out to explore new continents and cultures may
not be an entirely bad thing. I’d love to think I could repeat those journeys today with the same enthusiasm and the
open mind that I was blessed with then.
Patrick’s new book, Being English is available from the Bluecoat Press
Child nutrition clinic in Columbia, Latin America.
Boy with ancient sculptures in Peru Latin America.
On the beach in Rio.
Mosaic worker in Brazilia, Brazil.
Mother and child in a market, Lima, Peru.
Father and son, Lima, Peru.
Mother feeding her baby, Lima, Peru.
Young boys working on a road build in Brazil.
Argument in Lima, Peru.
Mother and family in Caracas, Venezuela.
Mother and child in Lima, Peru.
Funeral in Western Sicily.
Village life in Western Sicily.
Primitive farming methods in Western Sicily.
Farmer with meagre crops in Western Sicily.
Western Sicily was Mafia country in the 1960s.
At a rodeo in Mexico City, Mexico.
A woman farm worker in Mexico.
A family living near Mexico City.
Water from a local pump.
A retired blind bullfighter, Mexico City.
Singing gaucho at a rodeo in Mexico.
