This article was first posted in April 2004.

Most succesful photographers have a great deal of self confidence and an ego to match as well as a huge amount of determination. I have written before about how this ought to be a recipe for any joint venture to be an automatic disaster, but the British Press Photographers' Association seems to be bucking that trend...

When we reformed the BPPA we knew that we wanted to publish a major retrospective book covering the period that the association was in limbo. We also knew that it was going to be a major task to collect, edit and prepare the photographs. Well over 200 members sent in over 3,600 pictures and a committee of six working with a very experienced designer (Stuart Smith who did Elliott Erwitt's "Snaps" and James Nachtwey's "Inferno") managed to get it down to around 370 pictures.

Every book needs an exhibition and ours is no exception. We have managed to secure the prestigious Royal National Theatre on London's South Bank for an eight week run from the middle of October 2004 where we will have space to hang a selection of the images from the book. Everyone involved in this project is excited about the prospect of showing London and the world just how good British news photography is and we are already making plans to tour the exhibition accross the United Kingdom, Europe and even north America.

Even a book of great photographs needs some text and we havee been very fortunate to secure the services of Sir Harold Evans, author of "Pictures on a Page" and former editor of the Sunday Times to write a foreword. We are all delighted that Sir Harold has agreed to lend his experience and skill to the project.

So far I haven't mentioned the title. We have chosen "Five Thousand Days" because it reflects the length of time that British press photographers have been without an association. A lot has happened in the world in that time period, but UK news photographers have been at most of the key events and have also managed to create stunning work when there was virtually no story at home. This is going to be a book worth £30.00 of anybody who's interested in photography's money.

If you want to know more, want to be kept informed about the project or want to pre-order the book then get in touch at info@britishpressphoto.org. This is going to be a collector's edition.