During more than 50 years as a freelance documentary photographer, Lee Pearce has photographed some of Australia's, and the world's, biggest names. But when he started going blind, he was forced to leave his passion behind.

With only 25 per cent of his vision left, Lee Pearce says he was forcibly retired from photography. (ABC: Margaret Burin )

Several years ago, feature photographer Lee Pearce was diagnosed with macular degeneration.

Today - with one eye completely blind and only 50 per cent of vision remaining in the other - he has about a quarter of his total vision remaining.

As a photographer, the condition has been crippling.

"It's terminating really," Pearce says.

"It was devastating for a couple of years, I was a bit lost."

The condition is common among people with diabetes.

But in this case, the disease was most likely in Pearce's genes.

"I am not a diabetic, but it is hereditary and my mother did have it," he says.

A life chasing pictures

Based near Wardell on the New South Wales north coast, he first came to the region in 1973 to photograph the Aquarius Festival.

By this point, Pearce's photographic work had already taken him across the country and right around the world.

He sold his first pictures at the age of 17.

They were images of beatniks in Sydney wine bars and hotels purchased by a weekend magazine.

"They paid me what was the equivalent of about three or four weeks' pay in those days, so I was on my way," he says.

"I was 17 years old and all the old photographers at the Daily Telegraph hated me, even to the point of trying to sabotage my film."

Camera in rucksack, Pearce then hitchhiked down to Tasmania before heading up towards Darwin through the Australian desert, where he was arrested at Woomera and sent home.

His thirst for adventure soon pushed him abroad.

At the age of 18 he left for London with 25 pounds and struggled to find work at the height of a recession.

After several months living on the street, his lucky break came after reading an article in the newspaper he had used for a blanket the night before.

It mentioned a looming riot in Brussels.

"I went to Australia House, collected a 20-pound cheque, which gave me enough to get my Leica out of hock, and an airfare to Brussels where I became a war correspondent for a glorious day," he says.

"I got some good pictures and the Daily Mail picked me up in Brussels and flew me back, and I got front page picture and [they] paid me over 200 pounds."

This was not one of the only cases of being in the right place at the right time.

In 1990 while on assignment to photograph NSW artist Irene Daley he was about to leave when her 21-year-old son walked in the door.

It was yet-to-be star Troy Cassar-Daley.

"He'd been to the Tamworth Music Festival," Pearce says.

"All his relos came around, his uncles, his aunties, and he had to sing to everybody so we had this impromptu concert in his house."

The biggest scoop of Pearce's career came shortly after starting a local magazine titled Bush Telegraph, based out of Bangalow.

During an interview with the Fraser government's Deputy Prime Minister Doug Anthony, shortly after the Whitlam Government had been dismissed, Mr Anthony delivered him a front-page headline.

"He was a bit too relaxed because during the course of the interview he said on tape, 'The CIA could've been involved in the overthrow of the Whitlam Government'," Pearce says.

"We knew we had a story, so we waited until we got the magazine printed and on the trucks to distribute, and we fed it to The Sun... The Sun ran it front page.

"He used the old defence that all politicians use, 'I was quoted out of context', [and] said, 'If you want to know the truth you'll just have to read the Bush Telegraph'," Pearce says.

The story put a national spotlight on the small NSW north coast publication.

But the glory of the scoop was somewhat extinguished when they realised the distribution truck had broken down, and the Bush Telegraph ended up on newsagent shelves a week late.

These stories are documented in several books, including North Coasting, which feature images taken throughout Pearce's career.

But his film cameras, spanning five decades, are now collecting dust in a cabinet.

"I put them in a glass case and closed off that part of my life," Pearce says.

"I've given up photography, it's just too hard to see and I can't drive so I can't get anywhere."

These days, Pearce focuses his attention on writing.

Using a dictation program, he is currently drafting a fiction novel based around a catastrophic natural disaster hitting Australia.