Hugh Russell was an outstanding photographer, winning numerous awards and responsible for some of the most iconic images of the past 40 years. But, more than that, he was a cherised colleague to his friends in the press who remember him as always being upbeat, with a cheeky giggle and a cheery greeting of 'what are we doing today?'.
Veteran photographer and former Irish News picture editor Brendan Murphy mentored a young man eager to pick up camera skills during the day after evenings spent training in the boxing club or fighting in the ring. On one memorable morning when Hugh was still a trainee, Brendan took him out with him on a job which involved taking pictures of a woman. Hugh was fresh from a big fight and sporting two black eyes and who knows how many other bruises under his clothes.
"I took the woman's photographs," Brendan recalls, "and afterwards she pulled Hugh to one side and said 'God son, that photography must be a terrible game'."
It was Brendan who captured some of the most celebrated photographs of Hugh during his boxing career. After winning bronze in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Hugh arrived home to a hero's welcome and no warmer than in the New Lodge neighborhood of north Belfast where he had grown up and boxed in the Holy Family club. Brendan recorded Hugh being carried on shoulders along New Lodge Road.
On another occasion, it was the moment when Hugh stretched through the ropes to embrace his mother, Eileen. Hugh had gone 12 gruelling rounds against fellow Belfast fighter Davy Larmour in an eliminator for the British bantamweight title and it was evidenced on his face.
To Brendan, Hugh was as courageous a photographer as he was boxer. The Irish News picture editor gave Hugh his first job after he started as a trainee in the newspaper in 1983.
"It wasn't easy being a Belfast press photographer during the Troubles. No-one liked you. Photographers all had each other's backs, it was a close community and we looked out for each other."
Ask anyone in the media who has worked with Hugh what it was like walking up to a front door or towards a hostile group with him at your shoulder and you will get the same response - being with Hugh opened doors and changed attitudes.
Brendan said Hugh was held in the highest regard during both his careers, and the overlap was everywhere throughout his life.
"I once heard someone say 'there's that wee boxer from the Irish News'," he recalled.
Read more: Troubles photographers on how they shed light on the darkness
As a young photographer he won the coveted news photograph of the year award and it was a feather in his cap because all the press pack had attended the scene of a wall collapse at Belfast docks but it was Hugh's work that stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Hugh won a number of awards over a four-decade career and never lost his love of capturing moments in time.
He believed a photograph of a young girl in a nightdress standing beside a bullet-riddled door was one of the strongest he had ever taken, and it was by chance that he captured the arresting image.
Read more: Legendary boxer, award-winning photographer and 'absolute gentleman'
He had gone to the house in west Belfast following a shooting in the 1980s and when another photographer knocked on the door a little girl answered.
"She'd a wee nightdress on and there was this big row of bullets right down the door," he told the Irish News in 2019.
"I couldn't get up quickly enough to get the main camera out, so I got the compact camera and just took one picture."
The photograph was one of dozens to appear in Shooting the Darkness, a book based on the critically acclaimed RTÉ documentary of the same name.
Hugh Russell talks about how he got the photograph of Gerry Conlon:
An iconic image of Gerry Conlon leaving the Old Bailey in 1989 after his wrongful conviction for the Guildford pub bombings was overturned is also Hugh's - and it came about thanks to his boxing fame.
There was a cordon around the Old Bailey keeping the press back but a builder recognized Hugh and took him to a site opposite the court.
"He got me a paintbrush and he said to me, 'If anybody comes past, just start painting the wall.' I splashed paint on this wall for about five hours - to this day my painting skills are still no good," he joked.
The canny photographer manoeuvred closer to the door of the court as Mr Conlon left.
"When Gerry Conlon came out the door, he did the big punch and I took the picture," he said.
"I knew I had pressed the button at the right moment and then, when I processed the film in a darkroom in London, I knew I had a really good picture."
Former Irish News picture editor Ann McManus started with the paper the year after Hugh and worked with him until 2013 and she remembers a colleague who treated everyone with respect and offered the same patient encouragement to young photographers and boxers alike.
"I worked with Hugh for 30 years and I never knew him to be in bad form. Hugh always had a smile, loved to tell a story and he had a great relationship with everyone.
"He was a great photographer who could turn his hand to news or sport and always made people feel comfortable when he was photographing them.
"Hugh had time for everyone. The young boxers all loved him and he had a great love of photography and he encouraged young ones coming up and was always patient."
As much as he loved his twin careers, Hugh's family were his world and he often shared stories about them with colleagues.
"He was such a family man, he adored Kathy and the children," Ann said.
In 2002 Hugh was part of an Irish News team who traveled to Malawi in Africa to record the dire situation in the country which was facing severe food shortages. The pictures he took highlighted the humanitarian crisis and in a matter of days Irish News readers had donated tens of thousands of pounds to an appeal run in conjunction with Children in Crossfire charity.
Photographer Mal McCann has been Hugh's companion on the Irish News picture desk for nearly 20 years and the pair were thick as thieves. Starting out on his career, Mal says he "looked up to the likes of Hugh, Brendan and Ann at the Irish News" and says his big-hearted colleague was always ready with help and advice.
"I would meet Hugh out on jobs around the city and if I was late or missed the shot he would share a spare frame or two. It was great to see him work and I learned a lot from him. He loved working around the city where everyone knew his name. He would know everyone and everyone knew him, especially security staff at events where his name would open doors for him," Mal said.
"I can’t remember him ever saying no to me and whatever I needed; it was always a yes. He was really enjoying scanning his old negatives recently and spent hours reminiscing. It was a pleasure to work alongside him for almost 18 years. He loved photography but his real pride was his family. He may have been small in stature but he had a big heart. There might be an empty chair beside me where a legend used to sit but for me the legend will live on forever."
Photographer Alan Lewis is another of Hugh's friends of 40 years - although that friendship had a bloody start.
"I've known Hugh since we covered his fights in the Ulster Hall. He used to bleed all over us; he was great for pictures. He was just a great wee lad then. He decided he wanted to become a photographer - we all knew him already and he was a great kid then and over 40 years later he's become a great friend.
Hugh's photographic credentials were impeccable, but what readers might not know is that Hugh's mischievous nature meant he loved capturing candid snaps of colleagues and his ability to be in the right place at the right time was uncanny.
"He was an absolute delight to know as a human being; a beautiful soul and he always arrived at court or a job with a smile," Alan says.
"Hugh was a pleasure to be around. You always had a good laugh on jobs with him; if there was anything off-beat happening he would have taken a picture to embarrass you."
Alan remembers one time when the tables were turned.
"A baby giraffe was born at the zoo and there were photographers there and TV crews and this baby giraffe took such an interest in Hugh. It kept nudging him. The photos are so funny. He was a great guy, full of fun."
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Hugh was nothing if not fair and his decency won him respect across the communication industry and the community.
"Because of who he was everyone knew him," Alan said.
"Going on a job, the fact Hugh was there opened so many doors that would have been slammed in your face had you been on your own. Doors opened, attitudes changed. People respected Hugh and for good reason. He was welcomed everywhere he went, everyone knew they would get a fair shake with him.
"There wasn't a day that Hugh was working for the Irish News that we weren't talking. The first call of the day would be Hugh - 'How are you doing? What's up? What are we doing today?' And it didn't matter if it was court or a riot, Hugh was always among the first into the fray.
"For all the height of him he was a giant."
Hugh Russell appeared in a 1983 RTÉ video:
