Leonard Freed RIP

Vice UK Photo Editor Jamie-James Medina pays tribute to an inspiration: "When I was 15, I had my heart set on failing every class at school that year. It was that same year that my photography teacher gave me a book of images by Magnum photographer Leonard Freed called Photographs 1954 - 1990. The book, an early retrospective, followed Freed as he travelled the world documenting his early trips to Amsterdam and Germany, his take on race in America during the 60s, time spent photographing Hasidic Jews and the KKK and images from his earlier book Police Work.

Growing up in Asia, I realised I wasn't going to be comfortable settling down anywhere for very long. I also knew I wasn't going to be a doctor or go to Cambridge University like all the other men in my family, but it was made clear to me that I needed to find a goal or purpose in life.

In the book, Freed described his early life, as "hitch-hiking around, doing nothing in particular … After a while, it gets very boring if you don't have a purpose." Photography seemed like as good a "purpose" as any other I could think of.

Working with a classic Leica camera and shooting in black and white, for me Freed always seemed to mix personal street photography or snapshots with 'serious' photojournalism; two priests lost in a snowball fight in Rome or the skelton of a soldier; a victim of Israel's Six Day War in 1967, lying in uniform on a beach in the foreground, while a man heads towards the waves in the distance oblivious.

Freed's photographs seemed more approachable, more believable and, more importantly, more possible than the beautiful compositions of Sebastiao Salgado or the relentless reality of James Nachtway.

Sadly, Leonard Freed passed away last week at the age of 77 in upstate New York. In other tributes, I've seen other photographers tell very similar stories of picking up his books early in life or that he was underrated compared to other Magnum photographers. I can honestly say I'm not sure I'd be taking photographs if it wasn't for him. He taught me that the camera allows you to "wander around with a purpose" and for that I'm very, very grateful.

JAMIE-JAMES MEDINA