As Syrian bombs fell on Israeli soil all around her, it was said by a colleague that photographer Sally Soames stood bolt upright and took pictures “as if she were covering a golf tournament”.
The photographer, who has died aged 82, was equally renowned for her candid black-and-white photographs of world leaders and movie stars as she was for her heroics documenting the field of battle.
Mrs Soames, who was born in London to Jewish parents in 1937, travelled to Israel often to cover wars and elections — most notably the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
In her home country, she was best known for her images of Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, with whom she struck up an unlikely friendship.
She also took a memorable photo of Arthur Scargill during a miners’ strike of the early 1980s, in which the trade union leader was covered in coal dust.
Her celebrity subjects included Muhammad Ali (known at the time as Cassius Clay), Salman Rushdie, Hilary Mantel and Sean Connery.
Jacky Bennett, a lifelong friend of Mrs Soames, told the JC that she was “like her work — straightforward, totally honest and black-and-white”.
The two met aged 10 at the King Alfred School in Golders Green and remained close until Mrs Soames’ death, with Mrs Bennett saying “my children grew up with her around and were as upset as I was when she died”.
She added: “She was incredibly talented. She just had this way of totally relaxing her subjects. She was one of the first to photograph people warts-and-all. She wasn’t interested in posing.
“She was absolutely a people person. Her funeral was wonderful and beautiful, if funerals can be. She was terribly, terribly special.”
Mrs Bennett said that Mrs Soames was “not Orthodox at all” but loved Israel.
She was born Sally Winkleman in 1937 and studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
Her career in photography was launched after she won first prize in a newspaper competition for a picture she took of celebrations in Trafalgar Square on New Year’s Eve 1960.
Joining the Observer in 1963, she also worked for publications including the New York Times and Newsweek, before joining the Sunday Times in 1968.
In an obituary published by the British Press Photographer’s Association, Brian Harris described her “heartfelt affinity with Israel”, having travelled there with her there in 1981 to cover the Israeli general election, where she would snap both Menachem Begin and Moshe Dayan. She later returned to Israel in 1991, as Saddam Hussein launched missiles at the country.
Mrs Soames was an aunt to TV presenter Claudia Winkleman and actress Sophie Winkelman.
Her marriage to Leonard Soames was dissolved in 1966. She is survived by their son, Trevor.
