James Glossop

James Glossop has been a photographer with The Times since 2008, working primarily outside London. Commissions have taken him from Greenland to the Maasai Mara, Hollywood to the Vatican. His style is well known among picture editors for combining gritty reportage realism with cinematic lighting at any location. His current role as the newspaper's photographer in the north of England demands huge creativity and versatility, demonstrated in this set of three images.

When news breaks on his patch, James is among the first on the scene, as was the case with the rioting that followed the murder of three girls at a summer dance club in Southport. His shot of an injured police officer being helped past a flaming vehicle is the defining image of the events that happened on that summer evening.

James is passionate about covering cultural events, as shown by his picture of Shrink 01995 by Lawrence Malstaf, a performance artwork in which people can pose between two large, transparent plastic sheets with a device that gradually sucks the air out from between them, leaving their body vacuum-packed.

He is also assigned to foreign commissions and while on location does his best to add value to The Times' and The Sunday Times' coverage by shooting visually impactful festivals and events while travelling, such as this scene showing soldiers from the Spanish Foreign Legion carrying a life-size effigy of the Christ of the Good Death in a procession in Malaga.