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<\/a><\/p>\nSuspended above the 18th green, it offered spectacular aerial views and unique angles that \u201cbring to life the natural undulations of the hole and short shots around the green before the greatest walk in golf is captured\u201d.<\/p>\n
I was up and down that course across four days, spending a fair bit of time at the 18th, particularly as Scottie Scheffler put the show to bed, and did not notice Spidercam once. Either did Bryson. That\u2019s how sophisticated, how unobtrusive technology has become.<\/p>\n
It is a far cry from when Brendan Murphy first picked up a camera in the early 1970s \u2013 a Zenith B, \u201cthe best camera \u00a322 could buy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like a chunky metal box,\u201d he wrote in his 2003 book, Eyewitness, \u201cperhaps because it was a chunky metal box.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s auto-focus systems would have seemed like science fiction\u2026 but to me it possessed all the sophisticated technology that put man on the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so, having decided to stop pulling pints \u2013 he ran Murphy\u2019s bar, in Albert Street off the Falls Road \u2013 and beaten the demons that crept up courtesy of his chosen profession, Brendan threw himself headfirst into a new career.<\/p>\n
It was wing and a prayer type stuff, based largely on conversations with reporters and studying the portfolios of photographers who had frequented Murphy\u2019s through the years. <\/p>\n
But this is where being a perfectionist helps when it comes to mastering any craft, because Brendan wouldn\u2019t be beat. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to prove those people wrong who put me down,\u201d he wrote, \u201cafter the alcohol, I had a second chance and wanted to be a success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thanks to the guiding hand of mentors along the way, allied to his own understanding of people and, crucially, place as the Troubles erupted on the streets that surrounded him, Brendan Murphy became a success. <\/p>\n
As picture editor of The Irish News, he was one of the main chroniclers of the horrors that befell the north. Yet there was so much more too.<\/p>\n
Because the image that comes to mind whenever I hear Brendan Murphy\u2019s name is of his photographic prot\u00e9g\u00e9 \u2013 the late, great Hugh Russell – leaning through the ropes to kiss his mother after a brutal 12-round war with Belfast rival Davy Larmour.<\/p>\n
\u201cLove and relief, mingled with tears and horror, were etched into Eileen\u2019s face. Murphy pressed the shutter just before they kissed,\u201d wrote renowned boxing writer, Donald McRae, \u201chis black-and-white photograph distilled boxing\u2019s gory drama and bruising intimacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Brendan Murphy caotured the famous image of a British army helicopter flying over Crossmaglen Rangers’ ground during a 1986 Ulster club championship match. PICTURE: Brendan Murphy <\/p>\n
Such moments are not captured by accident, and it is the process then that becomes almost as intriguing as the outcome.<\/p>\n
Because Brendan wouldn\u2019t have known for sure if he had nailed the shot. He might have hoped, and prayed, but in an entirely different age of photographic processing, and shutter speeds light years from where we now stand, certainty did not exist.<\/p>\n
Take one of the most famous sporting pictures ever snapped; of Cleveland Williams flat on his back on the canvas, having been sent there by Muhammad Ali.<\/p>\n
Neil Leifer photographed 35 of Ali\u2019s fights, and also captured the famous image of \u2018The Greatest\u2019 imploring Sonny Liston to get up after being floored in the first round of their 1965 world title fight. <\/p>\n
That time he was stationed at ringside but, for the Williams fight the following year, Leifer rigged a remote camera to the lights 80 feet above the squared circle inside the Houston Astrodome. <\/p>\n
Decades before drones revolutionised the way sports events are photographed, this was high risk, high reward. And when Williams hit the deck for the final time, Leifer hit the shutter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gambled that there would be a good knockout,\u201d he told The Guardian in 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes a fighter crumples on their chest or falls into the ropes, but Williams landed flat on his back. I knew it happened in a good spot but I didn\u2019t have a clue how it would turn out until the film was developed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember seeing this photo come out like it was yesterday. It was still wet, heading for the drying machine, but even then I knew it was special.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result was a picture that perfectly captured a magic moment and, in doing so, said more than any amount of words ever could. The same applies to Brendan Murphy\u2019s shot of Hugh and Eileen Russell.<\/p>\n
Boxing had been a cornerstone of conversation in his days behind the bar, the thrills and spills of shows at the Ulster Hall and the King Hall making heroes of men who only ever saw themselves as ordinary Joes outside the ropes.<\/p>\n
It was Brendan\u2019s appreciation for their endeavour that informed his intuition on nights like October 5, 1982, as well as so many others. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s why, for all that the rapid evolution of technology alters the photographic landscape, so many of the same principles remain. The man himself summed it up when I asked him about the Russell picture a few years back.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight place, right time,\u201d he said with a low chuckle.<\/p>\n
Brendan Murphy retired as picture editor of The Irish News in 2003 but, on regular freelance shifts until the late Noughties, would often visit the sports department at the back of the paper\u2019s old Donegall Street home.<\/p>\n
Yet, barring the odd fleeting interaction, I cannot claim to have known Brendan \u2013 other than the way so many of us know him, and the way future generations will, in time, know him. <\/p>\n
Through his pictures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IT\u2019S amazing how quickly things happen now. Photographers with high-end cameras can have pictures cropped, levelled and fired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1334,2560,107783,107782,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-260439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-belfast","tag-boxing","tag-brendan-murphy","tag-gaelic-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}