Graham Finlayson

Graham Scott Finlayson (1932–1999) was an English photojournalist who first worked for the Daily Mail and the Guardian, and later freelanced.

Life and career

Finlayson was born in Ecclesall, Yorkshire in 1932 He started work at the Southampton Echo, but after national service "with the RAF air–sea rescue division" worked in Manchester, first for the Daily Mail and from 1959 for the Guardian, in Manchester (replacing Bob Smithies, who moved to London).

The Guardian did not restrict Finlayson to the Manchester area, instead sending him on assignments to such places as Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, Borneo, Nigeria and Indonesia.

In 1963 Finlayson left the Guardian He also covered architecture, industry, fashion, and travel.

Toward the end of a warm obituary for Finlayson, Bob Smithies wrote that he "suffered from melancholia [. . .] he was never sure of his worth, satisfied with his endeavours or convinced of his value to those who valued him"; after heart trouble in the early 1990s he gave up photography and moved with his wife to France. He died of cancer in 1999. much later, Harrison would go on to show it in a 1998 exhibition titled The Young Meteors.

Exhibitions Solo exhibitions Graham Finlayson: Early photographs, The Newsroom, The Guardian and Observer Archive and Visitor Centre (London), January–March 2005.

Group exhibitions British Photography 1955–1965: The Master Craftsmen in Print, The Photographers' Gallery (London), 1983. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning: The Authentic Moment in British Photography, Djanogly Art Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre, University of Nottingham, November 2012 – February 2013.

Collections Guardian News & Media Archive.

Publications Paul Jennings, text; Graham Finlayson, photographs. Just a Few Lines: Guinness Trains of Thought. London: Guinness Superlatives, 1969. . About the Colne Valley, Scarborough–Whitby, Oxford–Fairford, and Neath–Brecon rail lines. Frank Tuohy, text; Graham Finlayson, photographs. Portugal. London: Thames & Hudson, 1970. Portugal. Orbis terrarum. Zürich and Freiburg i. Breisgau: Atlantis, 1970. Translated into German by Aurelia Bundschuh. . Portugal. Paris: Braun, 1970. Translated into French by Maryvonne Menget. . Graham Finlayson: Simply Black and White. Salford Quays: Lowry Press, 2006. .