Sally Soames

Biography Soames was born in London into a Jewish family, the only daughter of Fay and Leonard Winkleman. She had two brothers, Barry and Allen. Her father was a businessman, art connoisseur and a member of the Communist Party. She was educated at King Alfred School in Golders Green, and St Martin’s College of Art, both in London. "My first photograph was my best photograph. What I was doing was fearless; in latter years I was more professional, a bit institutionalised", she told Barbara Hodgson in 2010.

Her first regular work as a photographer was for The Observer in 1963. After a period as a freelance, during which time her work also appeared in also appeared in The Guardian, Newsweek and The New York Times, Soames joined the staff of The Sunday Times in 1968, remaining with the newspaper until 2000.

She did not restrict herself to portraits of the prominent, which Soames described as being "photographs of people", but worked in war zones as well. Working as a photojournalist, she documented the 1973 Arab–Israeli War with Sunday Times reporter Nicholas Tomalin who wrote in his last dispatch, while bombs around them were exploding, that Soames was "the first Englishwoman photographer to stand bolt upright throughout (an air attack) snapping pictures as if she were covering a golf tournament".

Soames worked exclusively in black and white, almost always using available natural light.

Personal life and death Soames lived in London her whole life. Her nieces are Claudia and Sophie Winkleman, respectively a television presenter and actress.