Many job advertisements run with the caveat: Those with no previous experience need not apply. But that didn’t stop Jude Palmer from landing a dream position. MATT CLARK met up with her.

WITH the advent of smartphones everyone, it seems, has become a photographer. But not every picture tells a story, fewer still paint a thousand words and there is a world of difference between a hastily taken selfie and a well-composed portrait.

Jude Palmer may have a decent camera, but what sets her apart is an ability to capture the precise moment, to evoke emotion and to seek out the pictures many would miss.

Which is why Jude has been commissioned by Welcome to Yorkshire as the official behind the scenes photographer for the Tour de France Grand Départ.

She will photograph everything from back-room heroes to big-name riders leading the peloton and her work will be published in a book to remind us of the weekend Yorkshire launched the world’s biggest bike race.

But what’s most extraordinary about Jude’s appointment is that she is completely self taught.

“I don’t know what the rules are, I just play to what I see,” she said. “For me, photography is about composition and emotion, the rest is just junk.

“If I stop to think about things like f-stops I’ll have lost the image by then.”

Jude’s love of photography started when she had children. Having only a handful of snaps from her own childhood she vowed to make amends with her children. “I wanted a legacy for them,” she said.

Four years ago, Jude decided to take her hobby more seriously and that’s where the long road to the Tour de France Grand Départ began.

First stop was Harrogate Theatre, to record a pantomime, then it was off to the town’s hospital, before Jude decided to try her hand at some community projects.

She says all were personal, but One Step Away, for the Harrogate Homeless Project, was especially close to her heart.

“I have also been in the situation of having nowhere to go, and there are certain words you can associate with it, such as abandonment, betrayal, loneliness, desperateness.

“That’s what I try to capture, the faces of people who deal with these things every day.”

Then one day out of the blue, Jude heard that Magnum, one of the world’s great picture agencies, was offering places on a photo-journalism course.

Unfortunately, 30,000 people had the same idea and she was turned down.

Then a week later, the phone rang. Jude was top of the shortlist and someone had cancelled, would she like to take his place?

“I couldn’t believe it, and while I was on the course it made me feel that this is possible. Now I have two ambitions, to become a Magnum photographer and to become a war photographer.”

Which might seem a bit odd for a mother of three.

“I understand that, but if my children were in the same position I would encourage it,” said Jude. “I seem to be attracted to danger and extreme situations for some reason.”

One reason could be that Jude contracted septicaemia, pneumonia and meningitis last year and it spread so quickly that at one point she was just four hours away from death.

“I came out of intensive care with an attitude I didn’t have before. Now I have no fear of anything. I live for the moment, because tomorrow it could all be gone.”

Which perhaps explains why one day she suddenly upped sticks and went to Morocco armed with just a camera, a clean pair of knickers and a toothbrush.

Someone had bought her a bottle of Moroccan Argan oil made by nomadic Berber women. Jude had never heard of the stuff, so she decided to go and investigate.

At the airport three men offered to give her a lift – and where most would have been hesitant, Jude threw caution to the wind.

“I thought I’m either going to end up dead or we’re going to have an amazing adventure.

“And we did have an amazing adventure. I met a woman who ran this cooperative in the middle of nowhere. It was a fantastic experience.”

Less risky, but Jude’s grab-it-while-you-can attitude also paid dividends at a Welcome to Yorkshire Tour de France Grand Départ roadshow.

“I introduced myself as a photographer, saying I would love to do something during the tour and was told join the queue and send an email.”

She didn’t, of course, and at the next roadshow collared the same woman.

“I said give me half an hour and I’ll explain what I want to do. If it’s crap, tell me to go away and we’re done.”

She did, it wasn’t and 30 minutes later that was that.

Now Jude is at the start of a busy year. The race may be six months away but she has already bagged some pictures for the official book.

She has also opened a gallery in Harrogate where you can see some of her extraordinary photos, none more so than the series depicting dementia.

“This project was about showing the reality of it all. Not with pictures of batty old men and women smiling, because dementia is brutal, the most unimaginable hell.

“I was sick of seeing these anaesthetised, happy clappy images. I’m more interested in the truth and that’s what I hope my images show.”

Shooting in black and white also adds to the atmosphere of Jude’s pictures and she doesn’t spend much time in post-production either. For her, the most important skill is to see and capture an image that most people would miss.

“It’s difficult to describe what I do. I just see it and take it. I know what the predictable shots will be during the Tour, but I also know I’ll do nothing at all that is remotely predictable.”

• Jude Gallery, 12 Princes Square, Harrogate.

• Stage one of the 2014 Tour de France Grand Départ Yorkshire begins in Leeds and finishes in Harrogate on July 5. The second stage starts in York and finishes in Sheffield the following day.