The real deal

For over 40 years Joe McNally has been a photographer in a career that has seen him work for The New York Daily News, ABC Television, LIFE, National Geographic and many other publications. He is internationally known as one of the world’s most proficient exponents of lighting scenes with flashguns and has twice been in Amazon’s Top 10 bestsellers list for his books.

Talking of books, his latest publication is the tome The Real Deal: Field Notes from the Life of a Working Photographer – it’s a potent mix of anecdotes, technical advice and self-deprecating humour, that’s both great to look at pictorially and very easy to read. His career in publishing began as a copy boy at The New York Daily News, often being sent out in a radio car to grab film bags from photographers in different parts of New York City or at Yankees’ baseball games, but he soon began getting pictures in the paper and became a freelance photographer.

McNally recalls, ‘I went from the , freelanced for a couple of years, and then took a job at ABC Television. That introduced me to the world of colour and shooting Kodachrome under pressure. As I worked my way into ABC, andmagazine. I started shooting pictures for them without a credit because I wasn’t allowed to shoot for anybody else as I was full-time [ABC] staff, but, when I could swing something for them, I would do it.