Long-serving Bucks Herald chief photographer Barry Keen has retired.

He had spent 44 years at the Aylesbury paper, serving under eight editors in four different newspaper offices.

Barry began his career at a local photographic processors, having had an interest in photography from an early age, before taking a job with photographer Maurice Cousins in 1961.

Soon after Maurice won a contract with The Bucks Herald to run its photographic department, and Barry has been with the paper ever since, becoming chief photographer in 1972 when the paper opened its own photographic department.

He said: “I have always carried a camera around and I’m a big believer in the photograph.

“To me, there’s nothing better, whether it is a holiday snap or whatever – it is a memory. There is nothing I like more than getting books of old photos out which trigger a memory.”

During his career Barry has covered six visits by the Queen and photographed a whole host of celebrities, including the late Roy Castle.

Barry said: “He was one of the nicest guys I have ever met. He did so much for local charities.

“On one occasion he was opening a petrol station, and he did the usual poses for the camera. Then afterwards, he put the pump nozzles in his jacket pockets and pretended they were guns and he was a cowboy.

“They were great photos, but the fire brigade phoned up and pleaded with us not to use them because people might copy what he was doing.

“He was a great laugh, and such a nice chap.”

Barry has also seen many changes at The Bucks Herald and the photographic industry as a whole, including the move from black-and-white to colour, and more recently the advent of the digital era.

Not all changes have been for the better though, according to Barry.

He said: “It has not been the same here since we stopped printing the paper on site. We were a proper newspaper then, we had everybody here.

“We could run much later deadlines and there was nothing like the sound of the press and taking those first copies – it was a true hot off the press. There was something magical about it.”

But overall he says he has enjoyed his 44 years at the paper, and is now looking forward to retirement.

He said: “I’m planning to spend more time with my three grandchildren.

“But I’m not hanging my camera up just yet as I shall be doing some freelance work. And one project I would like is to build up a library of images of the Aylesbury Vale in all its seasons and I should have a bit more time to do that now.”