David Steen

David Steen (16 February 1936 – 16 November 2015) was a British photographer. His subjects included show business and sports stars, and politicians. Life and work Steen was born in London, one of two children (his sister Sheila was born in 1932). Much of his childhood was spent in the air-raid shelters of London and, also as a result of dyslexia, he was poorly schooled. Steen recalls the beginning of his career: One day a woman called Paddy Brosnan went to Smithfields to buy some meat. My dad asked Paddy if there was a job for me. She was the secretary to Tom Hopkinson, the editor of Picture Post. She said I could work for her as an office boy. On 1 April 1951, at the age of 15, I started work. Picture Post carried staff writers and about eight staff photographers. I walked around the office delivering post and doing odd errands for the staff. One day I was in the photographers' rest room, where they had their lockers, when the picture editor Harry Deverson, came in. He said to one photographer, 'Come and talk to me about a job in Switzerland,' and to another photographer, 'Talk to me about a job in Tokyo'. I had rarely left Clerkenwell, certainly never been abroad. My ears started buzzing, and it was at that precise moment I decided that this photography game was for me. I soon started assisting the photographers.