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Photographer bows out after 49 years at newspaper

A long-standing photographer who has worked at a daily-turned-weekly for 49 years is retiring from the title.

Kit Mallin, left, has worked at the Northants Telegraph since joining the title in 1964 at the age of 15 but will take his last photos for the paper this weekend.

He started working in the paper’s dark room, before becoming a photographer in 1971, and since then has worked for 14 editors, in three different offices in Kettering and was named company photographer of the year a number of times.

The paper, which made the switch from daily to weekly in May last year, has published a two-page feature on Kit this week to mark his retirement, which includes some of his favourite photos from the last 49 years.

Kit told the paper: “All photographers have their own unique picture style which they produce which no-one else will have done.

“There are lots of people I am thankful to – mayors and mayoresses who have bent over backwards over the years with some of the stuff I have asked them to do.

“Most of the general public I am grateful to. There are people I speak to now who say ‘You photographed me in First Class’, and they are now playing for Kettering Town.”

During his time at the Telegraph, Kit, pictured left as a teenager, has photographed a number of celebrities and also spent time stationed with local troops in Northern Ireland, Germany and Kuwait.

He said: “There was an incident with the Duke of Edinburgh at the Alconbury base. He was coming towards me and I fell over. He walked past me, looked at me and thought ‘Who the hell is that?’.

“One of the nicest experiences I have had was with Morecambe and Wise. I met them at the old Granada cinema in Kettering. They fooled around for me just like they did on stage.

“The worst people are the pop groups. They didn’t want to know you because you were a provincial photographer.

“In Northern Ireland, we heard what we thought was lightning, but it wasn’t – it was a rocket attack on the building we were in.

“We went to Kuwait four days after the 1991 Gulf War. We slept in the desert at night. There were ants as big as my fingernails, and it was so cold in the desert at night.”

Kit said he would not miss taking photographs, which was not a particular hobby of his.

But he added: “I will miss the area. The thing I will miss more than anything else will be the driving around. That, and power naps.”

4 comments

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  • October 25, 2013 at 9:39 am
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    They don’t make ’em like Kit anymore. Now, I’m off for a quick pipe smoke and a snooze in a layby…

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  • October 30, 2013 at 1:58 pm
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    What a fantastic achievement, Kit. In my time as editor of the ET, Kit was a great asset to the newspaper, not only through his day-to-day photographic abilities but also via his enthusiasm for the job.
    Enjoy your well-earned retirement.

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  • November 6, 2013 at 7:26 pm
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    Kit
    Always enjoyed going out on a job with you!
    Best wishes for the future
    Nigel Summerley

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