Feeding the Photography

 

Small Field on the Isle of Skye, Scotland - 2015

The last few weeks have seen me search for new sources of photography news after significantly reducing my use of social media these past couple of years. With the removal of Twitter (X) from my day-to-day life, I suddenly realised that I was feeling rather cut off from photography news. No news. No new photography. No sources of information at all. It suddenly dawned on me that needed to do something about that. 

A couple of weeks ago I found an old OPML export file in a Dropbox folder, made in late 2013. The file contained a list of all of the websites and blogs that I followed starting after 2007.  I have to be honest. I wasn't sure if the file would work or if the RSS feeds listed were still active! As it turned out, around 80% of the feeds were either no longer of interest, no longer active or had just disappeared completely. There was, however, a core of photography blogs that were still active.

The process of creating a new feed list has, though, been a great insight into the state of blogging in the world of podcasts and social media feeds. It certainly seems quieter but the dedicated blogger activity is still there. Several veteran blog names stood out on the RSS list, and to my amazement, these feeds were still active over a decade later. They may not post as often as they used to, but then that is probably to be expected.  

So far the new list seems to be working well. It needs building up a bit but the core feeds I'm interested in are there. If following these feeds also boosts my own blogging, I'll be happy with that too.

New Bert Hardy Exhibition

 

Photograph by Bert Hardy - The Gorbals Boys, 1948

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