Sefton Samuels is an acclaimed British photographer renowned for his poignant photojournalistic portrayal of northern England. He was described by painter LS Lowry as his favourite photographer. Samuels worked in the mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire and as a professional jazz drummer before turning to photography. Shot over five decades, his pictures include iconic images of George Best

George Best

George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders...

, LS Lowry, Coronation Street

Coronation Street

Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...

, Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

 and the changing culture and landscape of northern England. Around one hundred of Samuels’ photographs are held in the National Portrait Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...

. He has also held exhibitions at the Barbican Centre, Kings Place and Proud Galleries. His photograph of George Best was used on the cover of Paul Weller

Paul Weller

Paul Weller is an English singer-songwriter. Starting with the band The Jam , Weller then went on to branch out musically to a more soulful style with The Style Council...

’s Stanley Road album designed by artist Peter Blake

Peter Blake (artist)

Sir Peter Thomas Blake, KBE, CBE, RDI, RA is an English pop artist, best known for his design of the sleeve for the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He lives in Chiswick, London, UK.-Career:...

. Samuels’ intimate images of LS Lowry at home were used as the basis for a life-size statue of the painter erected in a Manchester bar. Sefton Samuels is the father of BBC documentary maker and broadcaster Tim Samuels

Tim Samuels

Tim Samuels is an award-winning British documentary filmmaker and broadcaster. His work is characterised by approaching serious topics in innovative and subversive ways to produce hard-hitting documentaries. Samuels formed older people's rock group The Zimmers for a BBC documentary and is a...

.