Former Province lensman was renowned for spot news
Current and former Province staffers were sharing stories about colleague Rick Loughran, after the well-regarded photographer died at his Surrey home Tuesday following a two-year battle with cancer.
Loughran, who is survived by his wife Jo-Anne, would have turned 70 Friday. He joined The Province in 1979 and quickly carved out a reputation for his single-minded pursuit of spot news — always with a radio scanner tuned to police.
Fellow photographer Wayne Leidenfrost recalled one 1980s incident when both men were dispatched to the scene of an armed robbery. Leidenfrost drove his car while Loughran walked the street with his camera, the two keeping in touch with walkie-talkies.
“It turns out I looked an awful lot like the guy who robbed the bank,” Leidenfrost said. “Rick got on the walkie-talkie and says ‘Wayne? You’re at 12th and Burrard, right? You’re about to get arrested.’ ”
Police boxed in Leidenfrost’s car and ordered him out at gunpoint. Said Leidenfrost : “I look across the street and Rick is taking pictures. The picture came first.”
Loughran was the consummate all-rounder — politics, sports, concerts, human interest. In 1980, he took a luminous portrait of B.C. born Playboy model Dorothy Stratten, later to die at the hands of her boyfriend.
Other subjects included British writer Dick Francis and a young Colin Firth, then living in B.C.
“He was a GM truck salesman,” recalled retired colleague David Clark. “He bumped into a couple of news situations around town, and brought the pictures into The Province. We published them and he got hooked.” gschaefer@theprovince.com
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