Joan Wakelin
Introduction
Our friend Joan sadly passed away in 2003. The following words by Harry Cundell represent just a small sample of the very dedicated road she travelled during her extraordinary life.
Joan's philosophy
Joan Wakelin
This is a very special page devoted to Joan who sadly died aged 75 in October 2003. Her photographs are legend and some of them are shown in support of this article.
Joan was born in Lancashire and started taking photographs at the age of 10. Her early days were spent concentrating on industrial scenes and people working within those communities. From this she progressed to the outside world where she learned very quickly to find a way into people’s hearts. Thereafter nothing could stop her from exposing difficulties in all areas where she felt people were vulnerable. Her humour and heart managed to open doors everywhere.
She was above all a photojournalist who was known best for her black and white photography which took her to many foreign countries where she particularly looked for signs of desperation and despair.
Joan was involved with many projects; perhaps the two main ones closest to her were the New Zealand’s Maori and Australian Aboriginal communities. and she said on more than one occasion that “They thanked God for me being there but probably thanked him when I had gone”. In photographing the Vietnamese boat people in 1989 she felt that she had reached the peak of her professional skills when she was included in the 1990 World Press Awards.
She was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 1992 and the British Institute of Photography. She also received the Fenton Medal from the RPS.
She was the main architect of Arena which never ceased to give her pleasure and she was dedicated to it’s survival.
In the 90s she settled down to a more local life in Berkshire and managed to find innumerable subjects to photograph with the same passion and devotion. Even when very sick she was speedily managing to cope with the modern world of digital cameras and processing. Some of her most striking work was done at the very end of her life.
A great many of her photographs are now in the RPS archives at the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television in Bradford.
Harry Cundell July 2007