Mulroney had 4 photographers over his 8-years as PM. Peter Bregg was the first who held the position for the first year. I took over on Canada Day July 1st 1985 and stayed until November 1987. Following me was Bill McCarthy who took the reigns from late 1987 until I think 1992 after he left a fellow named Ken Ginn held the job for about the last year.
Back then the job was mainly for historical purposes as I understood it. All the photos would eventually end up in the National Archives. I documented the PM's day both official and unofficial including family life. Working with me was a Photo Editor Dagmar Galt. She would help make sure the images were all properly identified help edit film and the logistics of getting film to the lab for processing and any printing required.
Though my job as I said was mainly for historical purposes all my images were also available to the Party to use for political purposes. My salary was divided into 3 parts to accommodate the various usages. The National Archives paid a portion since they were the eventual benefactor. The Party paid a portion so that they could use my images for their posters, pamphlets, election buttons and other political purposes. The third portion was on the government payroll as member of the PMO Staff. I was on a year by year contract.
Very little of my work behind the scenes was ever released into the public domain though courtesy photos were, which I will refer to later. I would do the annual Christmas Family photo each year to be released and when the Mrs Mulroney had their fourth child I did the official mother baby photo for release. Besides that only about 6 individual photos at most were ever released from behind the scenes during my tenure. The largest selection of my photos ever released at one time was to MacLean's Magazine when they requested a selection of my photos from behind the scenes during infamous Meech Lake Accord negotiations between the PM and Premiers. Think we sent them 6 to 10 photos. This however was an exception rather than a rule..
When a photo was released to the media it happened in one of two ways. I would put a selection 4-8 images together and I would meet with either the PMs Press Secretary or Communications Director or both and they would decide on the best one. On a couple of occasions I went directly to the PM if he wasn't busy. He would look through the selection pick out what he liked then he would ask me what I liked then whittle it down to the one photo from there. I want to point out here that I was always impressed with Mulroney's eye for a good photo. I would say 80% of the time the one he decided on was the one I would have picked also.
The one type of photo that was freely released were courtesy photos. These were photos of anybody who met the PM. From world leaders down to Joe or Jane on the street. I would say hundreds were printed and sent to the subjects in the photo. If the PM met anybody in his office, political events or on the street they could get a free photo if they asked. The first 8X10 print was free but if people wanted more or bigger prints they had to pay for it and that included MPs and cabinet ministers.
thats roughly how it worked back in the "Olden Days"
Topic: Political party photography (Read 4767 times)