‘Drawn By Light’ & ‘Make Life Worth Living’ photo exhibitions at the Science Museum
The Royal Photographic Society Collection’s ‘Drawn By Light’ exhibition was as good an excuse as any for a trip to South Kensington at the weekend. On at the Science Museum until the 1st March it showcases over 200 wonderful images from the world’s oldest photographic society that was founded in 1853.
Tickets can be booked online at:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/exhibitions/drawn_by_light.aspx
The exhibition features plenty of photographs from the 19th Century pioneers of photography including, Roger Fenton, Francis Frith and Julia Margaret Cameron – who I was surprised to learn didn’t take up photography until she was forty eight.
I couldn’t help but smile at the photo of the rather stern looking, top hat wearing ‘camera club outing’ of its day – ‘Members of the Photographic Society Club on an outing to Hampton Court’, 1856.
Fast forward through time to 1930 and I found Frederick William Bond’s (the London Zoo photographer) picture of ‘Contents of an Ostrich’s Stomach’ really intriguing. The contents included, a lace handkerchief, assorted copper coins, a length of rope and a four inch nail!
Other great images by Ansel Adams, Don McCullin, Terry O’Neill and Martin Parr to name a few famous photographers are featured.
It seemed only right that Steve McCurry’s 1985 iconic print of Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl was placed next to another famous classic, Yousuf Karsh’s 1943 portrait of Winston Churchill. (I was fortunate enough to go on one of Mr McCurry’s photo workshops back in 2006, but I’ll save that story for another blog post!)
It was a real bonus to find that on the same floor as ‘Drawn By Light’, the documentary photographer Nick Hedges’ ‘Make Life Worth Living’ (a photo project carried out between 1968-1972 for the charity, Shelter) was on display in a separate free entry exhibition. They are skilfully taken ‘gritty’ black and white images of the poor housing conditions and poverty, endured by people in Britain back then. The hundred featured images are on show for the first time, following a 40 year restriction to protect the anonymity of those featured.
There’s still a couple of weeks left to see the exhibitions in London, they both close at the Science Museum on the 1st March. ‘Drawn By Light’ will then re-open on the 20th March – but this will mean a trip up north to Bradford if you want to see it, to the National Media Museum http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk – the home of the National Photography Collection.