CASE STUDY RAF Sergeant Pete Mobbs
Based at the Defence School of Aeronautical Engineering, Cosford – where the Defence School of Photography has been a joint establishment (with the Army and Navy) for many years – is RAF Sergeant Pete Mobbs. Unlike the Army or Navy, with the RAF you can sign up as a photographer from the outset, which is what Mobbs did. He notes that’s the way it’s traditionally worked in the Air Force; new recruits, after completing basic training, have to undergo an intensive 8-week long photography course.
“I left school without the results I wanted, went to college for a couple of years – where I did ‘O’ Level Photography – and then tried to join the Air Force as a photographer,” Mobbs recalls.
Now an instructor, he notes that “it’s actually better that people don’t come to us with pre-conceived ideas so we
can mould them into a military photographer.”
With homework every night, the fast-track course starts with the theory of light and leads up to the make-up of a digital chip with practical application throughout. Once trained, Mobbs notes that he and his fellow photographers – of which there are around 200 in the RAF – are getting deployed more regularly.
“We’re becoming expeditionary,” he continues. “Traditionally, ground photography in the Air Force has been engineering support. You’ve got very expensive bits of machinery and technicians need the support of imagery to help establish whether they can fly for another couple of hours. You’re photographing station events as well. Plus we’re documenting the evolution of the military, a selection of the images we take will end up in the Imperial War Museum as part of the National Archive.”
A typical day will start around 8 or 8.30am “and finish when we’re done,” he divulges. “I’m teaching at the moment but there’s no reason why I shouldn’t been deployed on an ‘out of area’ task, where you maybe go away for four months.”
A veteran of a tour in Bosnia where he worked in media operations, Mobbs notes that photographers can be working not just for the folks back home but also the local press to keep them informed of NATO’s actions.
“At the end of the day you sign up on the dotted line and you take what they throw at you. You don’t do this for an easy ride, but it’s very enjoyable. You’ve got to be enthusiastic and have a real passion
for imagery.”
