Retiring: a Carlisle United snapper who's so much more

The calls, the messages, the requests to jump into action, often for little reward other than gratitude at the other end of the line.

The plea to set something else aside in the name of one more favour. Any chance you could find us picture X, Y or Z, Barbara? Would you mind coming a bit earlier on Saturday for A, B, C and more than likely D? Fancy stopping what you’re doing with your own precious time on a Sunday night to find the needle in a haystack of your thousands of images, even if it might not be there?

If Barbara Abbott was ever put out, even slightly, by all the badgering from the News & Star – from me, mostly – she never showed it for a single second. If there is any of the stereotypical grumpy newspaper photographer’s DNA inside her, you would never know.

As such, even if something was too much to ask, or was stretching what was fair to expect, she didn’t make you aware of that. I can’t think of a single occasion when I’ve heard Barbara sound frustrated, tired or hacked off by anything we’ve asked of her.

That, believe me, has required the forbearance of a saint. It does not expose hidden financial secrets of our industry to mention that photographers are not the highest-paid people who walk the planet.

Barbara, centre, has provided photos for the News & Star, and numerous other outlets, for many years (Image: Richard Parkes)

Freelancers, who make up the majority of the local newspaper photographic corps these days, have costs and contingencies and insurances and travel requirements to meet before spreading out the rest.

In other words, while they are paid for their work – and please note this, folk who nick their work online without permission or acknowledgement – plenty rests on goodwill.

At the News & Star we have been fortunate to benefit from Barbara’s goodwill for so many years. As an individual reporter, I can’t overstate the number of times she’s helped, gone above and beyond, either when asked or through her own well-honed initiative when it comes to what’s occurring at Carlisle United, what the story might be, what we might be looking for, photograph-wise, before I've even figured it out myself.

All this counts for so much before even contemplating what Barbara has done for us in terms of images: the action, the emotion, the decisive moments and, famously, the terrace personality of Carlisle’s games, home and away.

Coverage of a team, a club, cannot go very far without those. When the News & Star was blessed with a team of staff photographers, we were fortunate indeed. The superb work of people like Phil Rigby, Loftus Brown, Stuart Walker, Paula Thanner, Louise Porter, Stewart Blair and David Hollins – and yes, I know I’ve missed out many, many more – was fundamental to all we did.

Switching to a reliance on freelance and agency snappers could have been a move that diminished us. Thanks to Barbara, and our other loyal, talented photographers Richard Parkes and Ben Holmes (Barbara's grandson), the void has been filled.

We are lucky to have them. As is the Carlisle United-consuming public, many of whom – maybe most – know Barbara well, whether it be through her presence on the supporters’ away coaches, her musings online, her background working for the club after helping Andy Hall run a fans’ website, or the very familiar sight of Barbara making her way around the perimeter of a pitch, spotting, and being spotted by, supporters throughout Brunton Park or an away end, pointing her camera, eliciting a warm reaction and hence a timeless, treasured pic.

Again, taking the photo is one aspect of the job. Others involve making yourself approachable, unlocking people’s personalities. Barbara has all that in spades. In terms of the football, her decades supporting Carlisle United give her all the knowledge you would wish to aid that part of things. How she was trained, and trained herself, to be so good at the job is also testament to her. So is the rapport she naturally gains with managers and players, who don't resent her lens closing in on them.

Barbara has often gained a good working rapport with managers, such as Paul Simpson (Image: Richard Parkes)

2023/24 was Barbara’s last season as a regular snapper for ourselves and the other outlets who benefit from her work. It won’t be the last time we’ll see her on the beat, lugging her heavy case from car or bus to ground, sitting in all weathers (usually bad weathers) in the name of the job, but retirement now allows her to pick and choose, to rest, to set a fairer pace. She’s more than earned that.

I’ll also value, always, another thing you don’t see when the photos are published: friendship. The conversations on the way to this friendly or that cup game or that fans' forum or that abandoned Tuesday night match at Harrogate. Discussions about football or anything other than football. Confidences that don’t leave the car. And the ability to pass hours knowing the company is good, and the motorway miles don’t drag very much at all.

You can’t put a price on that. And you can’t put a price on a good person. A very happy retirement, Barb.