James H. "Jimmy" Hare was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 photojournalist active between 1898-1931. He was the leading photographer during five major wars, and was the driving force behind Colliers

Collier's Weekly

Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....

becoming a large circulation paper.

Early life

Hare was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to George Hare, who, after a successful cabinet making business, becomes a successful camera manufacturer. Hare attended St. John's College in London. He voluntarily left after one year and became an apprentice in his fathers camera shop.

In 1879, Hare and his father have a disagreement when he told his father that they should begin making smaller hand-held cameras, which were just becoming technologically feasible. Hare left his father's business to work for another London firm. On August 2 of that same year Hare married Ellen Crapper.

Career

During the early 1880s Hare began to lose interest in camera manufacturing. He took up free-lance photography as a hobby and sold his work to various London journals.

In 1889, Hare became a technical adviser for E.& H.T. Anthony & Co. in Brooklyn, NY.
In 1895, he became a full-time photographer for Illustrated American Magazine.

On February 15, 1898, one month after a fire destroyed the Illustrated American's headquarters, Hare presented himself at the office of Collier's Weekly

Collier's Weekly

Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....

 proposing to photograph the wreckage of the battleship Maine

USS Maine (ACR-1)

USS Maine was the United States Navy's second commissioned pre-dreadnought battleship, although she was originally classified as an armored cruiser. She is best known for her catastrophic loss in Havana harbor. Maine had been sent to Havana, Cuba to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban revolt...

, and life in Spanish Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

. This was his first major job. He captured images of the Spanish-American War

Spanish-American War

The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...

 (1898), which Collier's

Collier's Weekly

Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....

, the newspaper he was currently working for, used to build support up for the controversial conflict. His intimate war-time photography was often cited as the reason Colliers' circulation increased momentously.

After the Spanish-American war, Jimmy Hare worked for Leslie's Weekly photographing four more wars: the Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...

 in 1904, the Mexican Revolution

Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...

 in 1911, the First Balkan War

First Balkan War

The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...

 (which he covered for Colliers again), and World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 for Leslie's Weekly. He became known as the man who made the Russo-Japanese conflict famous, and was adored by his peers and contemporaries.

In 1904, Hare went to the Far East to photograph the Russo-Japanese war

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...

. In 1908, he took the first photo of a plane in fight in USA (Santos Dumont had already flown in public in 1906 in France). In 1911, he went to Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 to cover the Mexican Revolution

Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...

. In 1912, he went to Europe to cover the First Balkan War

First Balkan War

The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...

 for Colliers and the Illustrated London Sphere.

Hare was profiled by American Magazine in 1913 among its "interesting people", citing "the ability to catch the dramatic elements in the event he is picturing."

In 1914, he learned that Collier's would not be sending him to Europe to cover World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, so he contacted Leslie's Weekly to offer his service. He was hired and sent to England.

Other than photographing war, he took many notable photographs of airplane evolution - starting from the Wright Brothers' flight in 1908.

In 1931, Hare retired. In 1939, he was made the honorary president of the Overseas Press Club. On June 24, 1946, he died while staying with one of his daughters in Teaneck, New Jersey

Teaneck, New Jersey

Teaneck is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, and a suburb in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 39,776, making it the second-most populous among the 70 municipalities in Bergen County....

.