About

About Rob Hadley

I came to Canada from a very different world.  One in which fresh water was often an aspiration, rather than something taken for granted. One where human rights were often a distant dream.  I’d been working in Africa for about 12 years, working as a press photographer, principally for Associated Press, but also for The Sunday Times, The Guardian and occasionally BBC World Service.

In total I covered 13 wars (some multiple times) from Chad to Liberia, found myself in detention because of the nature of my work twice (once in Kenya and once in Sierra Leone) and covered the collapse of apartheid in South Africa. Additionally, I was seconded for 2 years to work on UN Operation Lifeline Sudan as their Information Officer, and with the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa for the first all race elections in South Africa, as Information Officer for Commissioner Rossil Jager, Commissioner for the Orange Free State.

During this time I worked with some wonderful journalists, and other photographers, including Juhan Kuus, my picture editor at AP Horst Faas, David Sandison and my good friend Kev Carter. I was responsible for bringing Kev to Sudan where I was working on Operation Lifeline Sudan. I flew him into Ayod where he took the picture that won him the Pullitzer Prize – a story detailed here –

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Carter Like many of us, I was profoundly affected by Kev’s death and that of Ken Oosterbroek, who I often worked beside.

When it came time to educate my children, my wife and I emigrated to Canada in a move I have never regretted. Such a move required a major career change. I found my feet working initially in advertising before setting up Vancouver Hypnotherapy, which I led until 2018.

At this time in my life I cannot imagine living anywhere else. Today I continue to work in hypnosis, seeing a limited client list and performing on stage from time to time as well as working on regular writing and photography assignments. I also spend time working on LGBTQ issues, serving on the City Of Vancouver’s LGBTQ advisory board among others. I am committed to serving the transgender community of which I am proudly a part.

I am a father, a hypnotist, an avid sailor and I am trans. I still take the occasional photograph.

Rob Hadley