Brighton: Book released of press photographer Roger Bamber's work

Out Of The Ordinary details the work of Roger Bamber who died aged 78 in September last year.

Roger, from Brighton, was known for his unrivalled pictures in a career which covered music, war, politics, people going about their daily lives and much more.

Shan Lancaster, Roger’s wife for nearly 40 years, worked on the book with him from 2019 up until his death.

Soldier with penguin on the Falklands in 1983 (Image: Roger Bamber)

Shan met Roger as a young journalist in the Green Dragon pub in Brighton.

She said he started work on the book a few years ago, adding: “He had a very bad patch and was in hospital for a very long time. He said ‘I have got to do a book otherwise I’m going to die and won’t have done a book and I will be really p***** off’."

The hardback contains many of Roger's most stunning images - and reveals how he captured some of them.

Shan said: “The picture on the back of the book is a skeleton running out of the Booth Museum. The Booth were having a centenary do and invited David Bellamy the botanist and Roger thought ‘there’s no way this will get in the paper with David Bellamy standing in front of a glass cabinet’.

“So he got them to set up a skeleton escaping from the museum and of course it got in to the papers.

Scan from Roger's book of a picture taken by him of a skeleton at the Booth Museum (Image: The Argus)

“He was working on the book right until the day he died. He went into hospital and was told he was terminal. He was going downhill very quickly, I was going in every day with the proofs of the book and he was going through them and sorting out the cover and everything.

“I asked if he was sure about the skeleton on the back and he said ‘oh yes! That’s me escaping, people will think it’s hilarious’.”

The book was released this month and has already sold out but more copies will be printed.

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Shan thanked photographer Alex Bamford for his work designing the book, which costs £40 for a hardback copy.

One of Roger’s favourite pictures, which appears on page 37, is called “running out of steam” and was a farewell portrait of five railwaymen whose jobs disappeared with the end of steam on British Railways in 1968.

Shan said: “It means the world to have the book out. It was his life’s work.

"He was proud of his photography and loved it. Anyone who spoke with him, he would talk about the stories behind the pictures. He remembered the names of everyone in his pictures.”

One of Roger Bamber's favourite pictures taken in 1968 of railway workers losing their jobs (Image: Roger Bamber)

Roger started out in 1965 and went on to an illustrious career on national newspapers before going freelance.

He won dozens of awards, most notably the British Press Photographer of the Year twice and News Photographer of the Year twice.

Roger's work appeared in The Argus many times, including one of his most famous pictures showing a child and the Punch and Judy show on the seafront.

He was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University of Brighton “for his distinguished photojournalist and the wealth of images of Brighton inspired by the city”.

There is an exhibition of Roger’s work at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery until September.