My grandfather loved to tell stories about his Second World War adventures, and his daring escapes from P.O.W camps. Nearly 20 of them. As a child, listening to RAF navigator Dominic Bruce’s heroic tales set my imagination soaring.
My favourite, by far, was about his escape from Colditz Castle, a prison in eastern Germany. That one he pulled off hiding inside a Red Cross tea chest, which had been moved to a less secure room in early September 1942. (We, Bruces, are not tall people.) Using a rope made of bed sheets, my grandfather waited until nightfall to slip away. He left behind a note to the Commandant that read: “The air in Colditz no longer agrees with me. See you later.”
I learnt the power of a story early on. And every step in my award-winning career as a visual storyteller is, somehow, linked to those precious moment with my grandfather.
Dominic Bruce, OBE, MC, AFM, KSG (7 June 1915 – 12 February 2000)
Bruce (far right) with Wellington bomber crew about to raid the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at Brest in April 1941 shortly before his capture
The tea chest used by Bruce to escape from Colditz
I’ve worked with news organisations, local government and non-profits.
With every story, I take audiences to the places I’ve been, to meet the people I’ve met.
Like Clayton, a 16-year-old boy in Cape Town, South Africa, who lived at a run-down school, which was trying to keep youngsters out of gangs and jails. Clayton watched his stepfather stab his mother to death, despite his efforts to fight the attacker off with a broomstick.
Or Sizwe, a 9-year-old orphan, perched on a patch of dust next to a rubbish dump in Johannesburg. Whatever scraps he had found each day for three years, he shared with 16 dogs, who waited patiently by his side.
Or John Riley, who, during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed me to capture the moment his saw his wife in a Liverpool care home for the first time in 10 months. And, of course, the brave medics at the Royal Liverpool Hospital’s ICU ward, who risked everything.
The search for these people, these moments, these stories, is what drives me, from morning to those late hours at night, when I’m editing or backing up the day’s footage.
I’ve worked with organisations across the globe that do incredible things to improve the lives of some of the most neglected communities. I’ve helped them tell the story of the work they do, and the impact it’s having on the communities they serve.
I am both proud and humbled for having received international recognition from the British Journal of Photography, Yonhap International Press Awards in support of the UN Millennium Development Goals, SAB Environmental Awards, Vodacom Journalist of the Year and Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards.
