FROM making pizzas in Sofia Loren’s kitchen to being held at gunpoint by Lebanese millitants, Geoff Wilkinson has seen it all, and photographed it.

Geoff, of Rectory Crescent in Wanstead, has worked for some of the biggest names in Fleet Street and the most prestigious publications in the US in a career than spans five decades.

The 70 year old's work took him royal palaces to countries torn apart by war, and saw him photograph presidents, movie stars and rebels.

After a career putting some of the seminal events and most famous people of the last quarter century on film, Geoff has retired in a quiet square in Wanstead where he shows his work and passes his skills on the the next generation.

For Eastender Geoff after a career travelling the world it is good to return home.

“My wife says that we have been married for 45 years but 38 of those I’ve spent on a plane to some place or other,” said Geoff.

“I am from Stratford and it never really occurred to me to settle anywhere other than east London.”

It was when he was a schoolboy in that he was first compelled to start taking pictures.]

“We had a very good art master who inspired me and soon after I started taking photographs and I knew that was what I wanted to do.”

After working various odd jobs to buy his first camera and selling pictures to his local paper, Geoff landed a job on Fleet Street.

Then pictures were still developed by hand, he worked his way up through the darkkroom and was appointed picture editor of a press agency at only 21 years old.

His big break came when he managed to gain access to a theatre where Princess Margaret was watching controversial musical Hair. After the performance the actors danced naked on stage and Princess Margaret joined them. Geoff was the only photographer in the building and his pictures sold to all of the big papers.

Geoff was soon headhunted by the National Enquirer and found himself flown to cover jobs all over the world.

“that was when there was big money in the press and big profits from picture exclusives. I took a picture of sextuplets in South Africa and the only way to get the negatives back to the US in time for deadline was to rent a passenger jet, which they did. It must have cost them tens of thousands of pounds.

After his stint in the US Geoff returned to the UK press and covered the 1982 Lebanon-Israel war.

“It is definitely an adrenaline rush being in a war zone. You have to take the picture but sometimes that is the last thing you are thinking about as you are constantly trying to avoid getting seriously hurt.”

“There were times when we thought we were in real trouble. Some Lebanese militants were convinced that we were Interpol. They bundled us in to a car at gunpoint and drove us out to the middle of nowhere. We got out of the car and there were a load of guys standing round with shotguns. It turns out they just wanted to talk to us and the guys with the shotguns were there to go pigeon shooting."

After covering conflict in Central America in the 1980s Geoff decided it was time to retire from war zones.

“I had been in newspapers almost 40 years by that point and decided it was time for a quiter life and moved in to working for magazines.”

He exchanged photographing scarred war zones for picturing some of the most famous people in the world as a freelancer for People Magazine, Time and the Mail on Sunday Magazine, among others.

A memorable afternoon was spent in Sofia Loren's kitchen making pizzas.

“I fell in love as soon as she opened the door. She was very beautiful with classic features and was fantastic to photograph.

“We spent the afternoon in her kitchen while she made dough and we all sang songs in Italian.

“One of the most difficult to picture was Margaret Thatcher. When she entered the room everyone kind of snapped to attention."

After setting up his gallery and print shop Eighty Four in Nightingale Lane three years ago, Geoff spends much of his time organising exhibitions of his work and kindling the creative spark of aspiring photographers in classes and workshops.

Old-fashioned craftmanship is at the heart of Geoff's success. While other photographers grab shots by chance Geoff places his reliance on technique and preparation.

“Quality, quality, quality, that is what I stick by. But in order to get a lot of good pictures done fast I think about what I am going to do beforehand and even write it down."

For his next project Geoff is turning away from stars and politicians and is training his lense on the ordinary people of Wanstead for what he hopes will be a unique photographic record of the area.

“I want to provide a real record of Wanstead. You often see old photographs of the streets of areas but I want to focus on the people who walk those streets. I want to gain pictures of a range of local people, from policemen to shopkeepers.”

Looking back on a life behind the lens, Geoff said: “It is just the most fantastic career. I have been very lucky indeed. For anyone thinking of becoming a photographer I say 'just go for it.' “