Bob Ahern
Bob Ahern is Director of Photography for Getty Images Archive. He graduated from Sussex with an English BA in 1994.
Sussex opened my eyes to so much” Bob Ahern
I had always gravitated to literature and the ideas behind it a way of interpreting the world. It was a way of looking to make sense of things, so it seemed a natural progression to get in as far as I could with literature. But I had always been a bit obsessed with other art forms – music mainly but there was something about the immediacy of photography that I had always been curious about and which of I knew very little.
As a kid growing up my father had bought an SLR camera but barely used it. In fact he jokingly swore it must have been broken because everything he took was out of focus so I picked it up and started to experiment. My photos weren’t great but I loved the idea you could control the frame, control the narrative – not realising then of course that the camera could do so much more than reflect one’s own world, and in fact excels when it does exactly the opposite.
Sussex opened my eyes to so much. The world of big ideas if you will, but more importantly for me personally it continues to help me focus on what is worth pursuing, to focus in amongst the noise. One doesn’t always get it right of course but the training I got from Sussex taught me a lot about not accepting the status quo of arguments or ideas and why. And the structure at Sussex allowed you the freedom to explore as your interests sharpen and mature – that in retrospect is just priceless.
I didn’t do an awful lot immediately after graduating. I loved Brighton and all that went with it so I stayed around for year whilst I dabbled playing in bands, a record label and a bit of touring but I fell into photography when I moved to London and never once looked back. So right now I am Director of Photography for Getty Images Archive and based in New York.
So I oversee around 80 million historical images. With a team of editors, I look after around 1,000 photographers who contribute in one way or another to the Archive and its historical coverage. So now I feel lucky that I get to work directly with photography that forms such a huge part of our collective memory – from some of the most recognisable images ever made from the world of photojournalism to images that as a teenager I had on my wall - idols ripped from the pages of music magazines.
When I first started working at the Archive in London I almost couldn’t believe I had access to the physical collection. Some of the original negatives were shot over 160 years ago. And it’s an archive that contains some of the greatest moments of triumph in history but also some of its darkest chapters too.
On the one hand you might have the incredible images documenting mans first flight, or our first glimpse of an earthrise from the Apollo missions or the fall of the Berlin Wall to some of the most terrible and tragic events of the 20th century and beyond. It feels like all human experience is there for better and for worse. And it’s an archive that many have lost their lives for; photojournalists have died and continue to die in the line of fire to bring us what we have today. Bring that into today's context and as the ideas that countless journalists hold dear seemingly come under increasing fire, my training from Sussex has never felt more important – the ability to continually question the narrative as well as to articulate the continuing importance of real, evidenced history has right now never felt more vital.