Eric Hosking

Eric John Hosking OBE (2 October 1909 – 22 February 1991) was an English photographer noted for his bird photography.

Life and career Eric Hosking OBE, Hon FRPS, was a pioneering wildlife photographer preceded in Britain by Richard and Cherry Kearton and one of the first professional photographers to make a living predominantly from photographing birds. He was born on 2 October 1909 in Chelsea, London. His family moved to Crouch End, north London, during World War I. Hosking loved London and, although he travelled greatly in Britain and abroad, he never moved away from his north London home, where he developed his natural history photographic business. Hosking died suddenly on 22 February 1991, aged 81, shortly after returning from a Kenyan safari.

Starting out on a career in wildlife photography in 1929 was a bold move. Bird photography was the pastime of a select few who mainly took photographs of birds for their own interest, or to circulate among fellow enthusiasts and in clubs like the Zoological Photographic Club, founded in 1899.

With no financial backing other than understanding parents, who would lend the money necessary to buy film, Hosking began to develop a market for his wildlife photographs. His working year was divided; he photographed during the spring and summer, where birds were mainly photographed at the nest because, as explained below, pre-focussing was necessary. In autumn and winter, articles could be written for magazines like Picture Post and Country Life; and book ideas were developed and then illustrated with high numbers of good quality images, some taken using the then new Kodachrome colour film, making these books very desirable. Some books like Birds of the Day, published by Collins in 1944, sold more than 50,000 copies.

A turning point in Hosking's career came through an accident which happened on 12 May 1937. Returning to a tawny owl photographic hide late at night, he was struck in the face by the owl, its claw penetrating his left eye. The resulting infection meant choosing between losing one eye or probably going blind. The eye was removed and the ensuing publicity appeared in all the national newspapers, where his photographs were already in great demand. As soon as he was fit, he returned to the hide to continue taking pictures.

Evenings were often taken up with lectures. It was not unusual for Hosking to give 100 or more in a year, to audiences ranging from three to 3,000. During his lecturing career, many tens of thousands of people were entertained with lantern slides of British bird life. The Trust has paid out over 30 bursaries to projects varying from the development of a reliable ageing criterion for British storm petrels to the production of a short animation about the spoon-billed sandpiper. The latter was drawn and coloured by children in countries along the migration route of this critically endangered species.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Hosking headed the judging panel of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards in their early years. Hosking personified the competition's ethics. In his autobiography, An Eye for a Bird, he wrote of his strong objection to "unscrupulous methods", "dishonest photography" and the objectionable practice of passing off as 'wild and free' an animal that was neither, a position that the competition maintains today. For many years, one category in the competition was named in his honour.

Personal life Hosking married Dorothy Sleigh on 15 April 1939 at Ferme Park Baptist Church, the minister of which, whose manse was three doors away from Hosking's home, subsequently shared the use of his garage (Hosking drove a Rolls-Royce), and the couple brought up three children, Margaret, Robin and David, at the family home in Crouch Hall Road. Before her death in November 2005, Dorothy had moved to the Suffolk village of Debenham, to be near her youngest son, David, who carries on the family tradition of wildlife photography. Geoffrey Hosking is a nephew.

Hosking was president of the Nature Photographic Society, vice-president of the British Ornithologists' Union, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the British Naturalists' Association and honorary fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the RSPB in 1974, and received an OBE in 1977 for his natural history photography and work in conservation.