Tribute to Timeform Annual photographer Alec Russell

The new edition of the Timeform ‘Racehorses’ Annual will sadly be the last in which Alec Russell’s pictures appear. Alec died just as the folded sections were being despatched to the binders in Oxford, too late to record his passing in the pages of the book which had been such an important part of his working life for over half a century.

The first pictures credited to ‘A.Russell’ appeared in ‘Racehorses of 1965’, covering races at the St Leger meeting, and at other northern tracks such as Redcar, Ripon, Thirsk and York. He soon established himself as one of the main contributors, taking up racecourse photography full time and attending all the big meetings. Alec contributed to fifty-three consecutive editions of ‘Racehorses’ and to every ‘Chasers & Hurdlers’ from its inception (there have now been forty-two).

The photographic content of the Timeform Annuals brings the highlights of the racing year to life in a way that no other publications are able to. Much of the pictorial content is specially commissioned, one of the aims being that future generations have an integral record of the achievements of the best horses.

Alec’s last pictures were posed portraits taken specially for ‘Racehorses of 2017’ at the yards of Karl Burke and Kevin Ryan, and he had already been planning a visit to the Jefferson yard to take portraits of the likes of Waiting Patiently for the next ‘Chasers & Hurdlers’.

Alec’s work was acknowledged – along with that of another of Timeform’s stalwart photographers Ed Byrne – at the prestigious Derby Awards in 2008 when he received the George Ennor award for outstanding achievement, an award so richly deserved.

To be still working at the age of eighty-five – Alec also wrote a weekly racing column for his local paper in Malton – is a tribute both to his dedication and to his constitution and his determination, although he finally had to admit defeat on the racecourse in the latest season in which York’s Dante meeting was the last at which he took racing pictures.

We will miss him at Timeform and we send our deepest condolences to his wife Shirley and his family.