The photographer Sefton Samuels, who has died aged 93, was a consummate chronicler of life in the north of England. Variously described as the photographic equivalent of Ken Loach and the painter LS Lowry’s favourite photographer, over six decades he captured the great, the good, the gloom and the grit in the north-west.
Although Samuels was known for his portraits of the reclusive Lowry, the footballer George Best, the playwright Alan Bennett and the singer Morrissey, his poignant observations of the realities of everyday life reveal his humanist approach. He believed that “photojournalism is the most significant way to use a camera”, and his blend of portraiture, street and documentary photography echoes the great Picture Post practitioners such as Bill Brandt.
