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Stamps capture photographer's five-decade career

Rebecca Brahde
BBC News, Isle of Man
IOMPO The set of black and white images, which includes a photo of three women in dresses at a wedding, a woman in a cockpit of a 1940s aeroplane, a child in the streets of Poland after World War II and a cowboy riding a horse swinging a lasso.IOMPO
The eight-stamp collection will be launched on Thursday

A new stamp set celebrates five decades of the career of a Manx photographer who captured images documenting aspects of World War Two as well as post-war life.

Through the Lens of Leonard McCombe features the photojournalist's work from his early days on the island, wartime images and later magazine work in the United States.

Launched on Thursday's 80th anniversary of VE Day, the set coincides with an exhibition at the House of Manannan focusing on his war photography.

Clark McCombe, who helped to develop the set, said his father's work had captured the "images, emotions and history of a world recovering from World War Two".

The eight images featured include a fisherman on a Manx vessel near the Calf of Man, a female ferry pilot of the Air Transport Auxiliary, who transported aircraft from the factory to the aerodrome during the conflict, and a Texan cowboy rounding up spring-born calves.

IOMPO Stamps featuring a female ferry pilot in the cockpit of a Barracuda and a cobbler in his workshop. The images are black and white and with the photographers name, and the value of the stamp in white lettering in a red background.IOMPO
Many of the images have not been seen in public since they were originally produced

Born on the island in 1923 and growing up in Port Erin, McCombe took up photography at the age of 14, with his early work including capturing images of those held at the island's only all-female internment camp in Rushen.

After moving to England, he went on to cover the allied advance during World War Two before moving to the United States and capturing American cowboys and the Navajo Nation.

His portfolio of work also includes images of Winston Churchill and several US Presidents, as well as the Apollo moon launch.

IOMPO Stamps featuring a Navajo woman in traditional dress smiling and a cowboy on a horse throwing a lasao.IOMPO

The Isle of Man Post Office's general manager for stamps and coins Maxine Cannon said many of the images used for the stamp issue had "never been seen or published since the rolls of film were developed several decades ago".

That was because in his later years McCombe, who died in 2015, had spent most of his time farming, meaning his "treasure trove of scrapbooks, writings, negatives, prints and books lay forgotten in his study", she added.

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