I once submitted a picture to the Guardian and they published it.
It was during my Street photography years. It was taken at Camden Lock in about 1980
Sept. 3, 2025
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Congratulations.
Do you get paid for that?
Alan
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Of course not! Gone are the days when a newspaper would send you a check without asking. It happened when I did theatrical photography back in the 90's.
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In 1996 I shared a house in Ealing, West London, with three long-haul air hostesses. It worked out well because they were away most of the time.
Anyway… the three of them were approached on the Thames Embankment on a day off by a “journalist” from the Sun daily tabloid (trash) newspaper. Together they created a full two-page spread on how they all sensationally split up with their boyfriends. I cannot remember the exact stories, but it all was completely untrue, but they used their (three girls’) photographs and real names. The boyfriends never existed. It took them four months of chasing to get paid £3̶0̶0̶0̶ - - a lot of dough in 1996 for a fake story.
Edit: I’ve messed up… it was a grand (£1000) :-)
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I have a photo that occasionally gets used in The Guardian, too. I didn't get paid for it, nor credit. It's a head shot of my former boss (I'm 3 years retired) they sometimes use to illustrate stories based on my former employer's public audit investigations. I was summoned to take the shot when the office photographer was off that day simply because someone in the external comms team knew I was an amateur photographer and it was an emergency. We had a basement studio with lights and I shot the picture using an unfamiliar camera and a lighting system I knew nothing about. I got the exposure wrong (too dark) but they continue to use it anyway as a library shot. It's my photographic claim to fame, but not one to be particularly proud of. Yours is good.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/15/home-offices-out-of-date-grasp-of-highlighted-by-watchdog
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A local TC station weather channel used one of my after-tornado photos in their weather report for the day. It was a picture all in purple. You can see it in a recent thread called A Coat of Many Colors. I didn't get paid.
Steve Thomas
