Ten years, one lens: Award-winning photographer reveals decade in pictures

It has been 10 years of tragedy and triumph, turbulence and turmoil.

And Jeff Mitchell has been there to freeze-frame many of the moments that shaped the last decade.

An award-winning photographer for news agency Getty since 2006, Glasgow-based Jeff has travelled the world to the biggest breaking stories.

Over the course of his career, he has won awards for his images, including Press Photographer of the Year.

Here, we asked Jeff to choose a picture from each of the past 10 years that captures the unforgettable moments of the past decade.

“When I started, one of the older guys I worked with was this legendary photographer Ian Hossack,” he said.

“He would say, ‘don’t get sucked into this theory you have to travel round the world to take a great picture.

“He was probably right – two years ago I took a picture of a girl during the Beast From The East storm, and it was taken less than 200ft from my front door.

“That was probably my favourite job of the decade!”

One job Jeff doesn’t want to be remembered for, however, is a picture taken in Croatia.

A shot of hundreds of Syrian refugees queuing for trains was used by Nigel Farage and UKIP under a headline “breaking point”.

“I don’t want to be the guy remembered for ‘breaking point’. The people in that picture weren’t on their way to the UK, people could see that.

“I chose another picture for 2015 because I’m sick of talking about that one.”

April 29, 2011

Prince William drives his new wife Kate from Buckingham Palace in a decorated classic Aston Martin sports car after they were married in front of 1,900 guests, including members of foreign royal families and heads of state.

Jeff says: It was insane. There was a huge team of us from Getty – must have been about 25 or 30 of us trying to get something. This picture was taken later on, and a lot of people missed it because it was later in the day.

I was hanging about in the Mall and they appeared in this car – which is apparently Prince Charles’ car.

Kate was giving a nice wave. I think this is one of the nicest royal pictures I’ve taken.

August 2012

A man and boy watch the sun set behind the Olympic rings on Day 14 of the London 2012 Olympic Games

Jeff says: “ Every photographer wants to cover the Olympics because there are so many good pictures of sport you can potentially take. Unfortunately I didn’t get that job — I had to do the news side of things, which was very difficult. I went for a walk round the Olympic Park with my long lens camera. I was doing a picture of the Olympic rings then this man appeared in the background holding a child. It was the perfect position.

September 2013

A marcher for Scottish independence shows the passion in Edinburgh as thousands of pro-independence campaigners march through the capital in the second of three large marches held in the run up the referendum for Scottish Independence in 2014

Jeff says: This was one of the big marches in Edinburgh in the build up to the Scottish Independence referendum the following year. I wanted to stay away from the usual pictures of politicians but Scottish Independence was the most important political story of the decade. He was probably playing up for the photographers but it’s a nice photo. Lucky guy having that body right enough — I wouldn’t be shy if I looked like that!

February 2014

Anti-government protesters continue to clash with police in Independence Square, Kiev, despite a truce agreed between the Ukrainian president and opposition leaders. After several weeks of calm, violence flares between riot squad offcers and protesters, who are calling for the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych over corruption and an abandoned trade agreement with the European Union

Jeff says: I could have put more graphic and awful pictures here, but this is one of the most iconic pictures. It just shows the chaos of what happened. Some guy’s throwing a Molotov cocktail, and it’s happening about 20 minutes before the police broke through the lines and that’s when people started getting shot. Did I feel in danger? Oh God, yes. There was a conveyer belt of bodies coming past us away from the front line. It was probably the most dangerous situation I’ve ever been in.

September 2015

A man holds his crying child close to him as migrants force their way through police lines at Tovarnik station, in Croatia, for a train to take them to Zagreb. Migrants are crossing into Croatia from Serbia two days after Hungary sealed its border with Serbia, the majority of them want to reach Germany, amid divisions within the European Union over how to manage an ongoing crisis.

Jeff says: I took this one round about the same time as the “breaking point” picture which was used by UKIP, but I prefer this one. Plus I don’t want to be remembered as the Breaking Point guy. There were so many better photographs. You can see the desperation on this man’s face. They were waiting in this train station the whole day in the sweltering heat, trying to get onto a train to Germany. I just remember the terror in his face as well as the child’s.

February 2016

Nurse Pauline Cafferkey enters an isolation tent before boarding a RAF Hercules at Glasgow Airport to be flown to the Royal Free Hospital, in London, to be treated for ebola.Thankfully, she survived and last year gave birth to twins

Jeff says: Quite often you get sent to these types of jobs and all you end up with is a picture of an ambulance. It becomes a nothing picture. This one was obviously different.

I couldn’t believe it really. I remember my boss at the time saying it looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. For ebola to come back to our shores was a huge deal. Pauline was transported in a RAF Hercules aircraft. It reminded me of the movie Outbreak.

May 2017

Demonstrators confront police on the annual May Day worker’s march in Paris as violence flared during the rally held close to the Place de la Bastille, where protestors shouted ‘Fascists out!’

Jeff says: This was a bizarre story. I was doing a feature on the far right in Europe at the time. I ended up being in Paris and was asked to have a look at the May Day demonstrations, but to not expect anything. I thought I might get a wee artistic photo maybe, easy peasy. Then in true French rebellion fashion it all started kicking off and the police were getting hit by Molotov cocktails. I usually take a gas mask, the tear gas was flying. This guy went up like a firework. Insane.

February 2018

A woman makes her way through the snow in Balloch during the freezing front dubbed the “Beast from the East” that combined with Storm Emma coming in from the South West to bring snow and sub-zero temperatures causing chaos on roads and shutting schools. Red weather warnings for snow were seen in the UK for the first time

Jeff says: I’m really proud of this picture. I couldn’t get the car out the drive, the car just lifted itself up, so I was stuck in two feet of snow. I went out in Alexandria to do some shots and this vision of a girl covered in snow, looking like she’s walked out of the Arctic Circle. I took the picture and she walked by me and said: “Was that a good picture?” It was and made a few front pages the next day.

October 2019

Police clash with protestors in Barcelona following a week of protests over the jail sentences given to separatist politicians by Spains Supreme Court. Nine Catalan pro-independence leaders were sentenced to varying jail terms for sedition, in relation to the 2017 independence referendum.

Jeff says: Another year where we’ve had protests all over the world. This one sticks with me because it’s similar issues to what’s happening in Scotland in a way, but Catalonians are being a lot more forceful than Scots.
And the police for whatever reason were just not holding back. I thought their approach was so heavy handed. It’s just a good protest picture, though — the expressions on their faces, especially. I got hit by a rubber bullet over there — the lump still hasn’t gone away.