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| Jeff Morgan was born in 1955 and has lived and worked in Wales
all his life, knowing the country and its people intimately. He discovered
photography rather late in life, in 1981, during a short period of unemployment.
In 1983 he saw the light, and discovered photojournalism. By chance his
local college, Gwent College of Higher Education, ran the world's leading
course in Documentary Photography under Magnum photographer David Hurn,
backed up by a team of working professionals. Morgan resigned from his job
as an engineer, programming computer controlled machine tools, to study
under Hurn as a full-time student '84-'86. He subsequently returned to the
course as a part-time lecturer '90-95.
On leaving college he set about doing the usual round of local newspaper
and PR work, but it was a picture story he shot whilst in college that
was to have the greatest influence on his future, Afghan Hound racing.
The story was offered to, and subsequently published by Eamonn McCabe,
the then picture editor of the short-lived SportsWeek magazine. When McCabe
became picture editor at The Guardian in 1988 Morgan reintroduced himself
and has been "The Guardian's man in Wales" ever since. A regular
contributor to the paper, he has had many front-page pictures over the
years, working on Morgan has previously won the BT Welsh Press Photographer of the Year and also BT Welsh Journalist of the Year (the only time it's been won by a photographer). Apart from editorial work Morgan also undertakes personal projects. His small eisteddfods was started in 1993 and he continues to work on this at weekends when not shooting for the national media. A 15-month project with another photojournalist, Glenn Edwards, looked at Welsh rugby in the year Wales hosted the 1999 Rugby World Cup. The pictures can be seen in the book "World Cup and Beyond" published by The Western Mail. On those rare occasions when he is not shooting pictures he can usually be found listening to the Grateful Dead, carp fishing or gardening. |