Not being a studious, college sort of person, I got myself as much real work as possible. At first I worked under Paul Sanders, who was deputy picture editor of the Manchester Evening News at the time; Paul placed me under the wing of the legendary Howard Barlow, who in turn introduced me to Don McPhee at The Guardian. Don eventually got me a gig at The Independent and I worked there for a couple of years.

This photograph of the reed cutter, Eric Edwards, was part of a feature I shot for The Independent in 1998. Eric was something of an enigma and is known by a large contingent of the Fleet Street photographers. He once told Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, she ‘was doing it wrong’ when giving her a lesson in stacking reeds.

Jason Bye covers East Anglia for day-to-day news, and travels further afield shooting magazine features and portrait assignments for the Daily Mail. He is also a founding contributor to the new regional glossy Norwich Magazine.

Photographer since 1992. EPUK member since 2004.

See more work by Jason Bye