Small Field on the Isle of Skye, Scotland - 2015 |
Small Field on the Isle of Skye, Scotland - 2015 |
You can't really talk about British documentary photography during the mid-20th century without talking about Bert Hardy. So it's fantastic to see that The Photographers' Gallery in London is having a long overdue retrospective of his work.
I first came across Bert Hardy's name during the early 1990s when I managed to buy the fantastic book 'Great Photographers of World War II' by Chris Boot. Along with the usual names like George Rodger and Robert Capa, the book also looked at the work and lives of some of the lesser-known combat photographers including Bert Hardy.
Hardy had been working for the Picture Post when he got called up and it was where he returned to after the end of the war. He stayed at the Picture Post until 1957 when the photojournalistic magazine closed due to falling sales caused by the arrival of television and other factors.
The photographer moved to being an advertising photographer due to the lack of work opportunities for photojournalists but by 1964 had left the industry completely to become a farmer. His images though have become iconic with the day-to-day life of people in post-war Britain probably among the best images shot during that period.
The Bert Hardy retrospective will be on at The Photographers' Gallery in London from 23 February 2024 - 02 June 2024.
Details about the exhibition, opening times, etc can be found HERE
It's been catch-up time over the past few days regarding the blog. A tweak or two to the design and a new background and the site is ready for another few years.
Looking back through the old posts was a strange experience. It was like reading an old diary and seeing a glimpse of a previous life. So much has changed for me in the years since this blog started.
The level of enthusiasm for posting can be seen by the total number of posts for each year. The peak was 2007, closely followed by 2008. I do not intend to get back to those levels, but I would like to post at least once a week if possible.
Finally, I would like to apologise for an issue I came across this weekend. As I checked through the various areas of the blog I clicked on the comment section and noticed 34 comments awaiting moderation. I'd received no notification or emails to say that a comment was waiting.
All of the comments have now been published on the website and I would especially like to thank those people who left some feedback about the Billingham bags and Michele Breton posts that I posted some years ago now. I also received some wonderful comments about the blog. Sorry, it took so long to add these to the site. I will check regularly from now on.
Hopefully, I can get the old blog back to something like its old self from a few years ago.
It's been a long time since i posted on this blog, but what goes around comes around and the blog isn't closed quite yet.
I've posted on my Darker Skies blog about the changes to Twitter (or X as it's magnificently called now) and how the blogs will benefit from that decline. I'm fed up of social media and have been for some time. The honeymoon is over for me at least.
My plan is to use my blogs much more from now on. Last year this blog published NO new posts for the first time since it launched in 2007. That needs to change.
So keep an eye on the blog for new posts coming over the next few weeks and months. It's time to get back to the blogging :)
Spotted this great video by Scott Manley on YouTube that looks at the history of cameras in space.
Scott's video does go into some detail about the modifications made to the cameras and the later models by Hasselblad and Nikon specially created for use in space.
Well worth a watch.