Best hardy , one of the great photographers
Picture Post was a photojournalism magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,700,000 copies a week after just two months.
The magazine's editorial stance was liberal, anti-fascist and populist and from its inception, Picture Post campaigned against the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. The November 26, 1938 issue featured a pictorial story entitled "Back to the Middle Ages": photographs of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring were contrasted with the faces of the scientists, writers and actors they persecuted.
The four guardians of German culture today: protecting its purity from the ¨polluted race¨.
Four central figures hovered over the headlines; alongside Hitler, Goebbels and Goering was Julius Streicher, whose newspaper Der Stürmer was the centerpiece of Nazi propaganda. A former schoolteacher who was expelled from his profession, Streicher was an anti-Semite, almost to a comical degree: he wrote anti-Semitic books for children and frequently repeated the medieval accusation that Jews killed Christian children to make matzah (a traditional Jewish flatbread meal). Streicher, one of the first to practice what today we would call "fake news," argued that since his articles were based on race, not religion, they were protected by the German constitution.
The photo on page 19 read: Humanity at its lowest ebb. Young Nazis look on smiling as elderly Jews are forced to mop the streets of Vienna. On the back of this image, the agency that circulated it felt it necessary to print: "Under no circumstances may the source from which this image was obtained be revealed."
If one photographer sums up the spirit and sheer brilliance of the leading British newspaper Picture Post, it is Bert Hardy (1913-1995). Along with Bill Brandt and Don McCullin, former Victoria & Albert curator Mark Haworth-Booth considered Hardy one of the top three British photojournalists of the genre's Golden Age. Indeed, Hardy ranks alongside Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and Werner Bischoff as the giants of 20th century photography.
Born in London and entirely self-taught, Hardy was one of the first professionals in the UK to adopt the 35mm Leica in favor of a traditional large-format press camera. The smaller camera and faster film suited his instinctive shooting style and allowed him to consistently create something unique even in high-pressure situations. His confidence and courage enabled him to produce some of the most memorable images of the Blitz and post-war England and Europe. An inspiration to a generation of photojournalists. He became the Post's chief photographer, after earning photographer credit for his February 1, 1941 photo essay with his photograph of two firemen fighting fire in Blitz.
Hardy served as a war photographer with the Army Photographic and Film Unit (AFPU) from 1942 to 1946: he participated in the D-Day landings in June 1944; covered the liberation of Paris; the Allied advance across the Rhine; and was one of the first photographers to enter liberated Belsen to record the suffering there. He also saved some Russian slaves from a fire set by German police in the city of Osnabrück, before photographing the aftermath.
Near the end of World War II, Hardy went to Asia, where he became Lord Mountbatten's personal photographer. He later appeared on the cover of the Korean War with journalist James Cameron for Picture Post, reporting on the atrocities committed by Syngman Rhee's police under the United Nations flag in Pusan in 1950, and later on the turning point of that war, the Battle of Inchon, photojournalism for which he won the Missouri Pictures of the Year award.
I like Bert Hardy and I am struck by how close he is at every moment to the scene and his versatility in photographing different subjects such as street scenes, theater, war photographer, sports photographer, portraitist, documentary .... No wonder he is considered one of the greatest.
His photography is clean and the point of interest is clear in each one of his images, without variegation, almost always closing the shot with a wall either perpendicular or at an angle.
Photographing Kids
Photographing children is photographing joy, curiosity, wonder, imagination, creativity, fun, friendship, kindness... and Bert Hardy took advantage and very well of the scenes that the children he met offered him. Very faithful to his style of photography where the point of interest stands out in the foreground and shooting almost always at the same height as these little spontaneous models.
This photo above makes me happy and I guess that after shooting, good old Bert would also be happy, smiling. It can't be the opposite, notice how the parish priest also enjoys the company of the three children running towards him.
A photograph quickly seen and executed
Gorbals Housing
Gorbals housing was built for Glasgow's growing population of industrial workers. Conditions were appalling; overcrowding was standard and sewage and water facilities inadequate. Bert Hardy reported on these dwellings where up to 10 individuals shared a room and 40 people shared a toilet, it was not easy for him to accept the conditions in which these people lived.
The photograph below is one of my favorites of Bert Hardy's, the rhythm, the timing, the speed of the shot, the story, the movement, the facial expression of the last child, the chubby one who doesn't make it, the child who is clinging.
The Street
Sports
Fashion
Performance
French writer Francoise Sagan in Paris July 25, 1955, one year before publishing her novel ¨Good morning sadness¨.
1939: Ming the panda bear Ming taking a photograph of Bert Hardy's son Michael, this photograph along with the one below, remind me very much of Duane Michals portraits, creative portraits, out of the ordinary and with a dash of humor.
25th September 1954, English actor and comedian Terry Thomas poses for Bert Hardy to demonstrate how a husband slaves away late into the night to keep his wife in idleness and luxury.
