Bert Hardy: Britain Through His Lens 1938-1957

Published on the occasion of Bert Hardy: Photojournalism in War and Peace, 23 February—02 June 2024 exhibited here at The Photographers’ Gallery this book is a new revised paperback edition of the out of print Bert Hardy's Britain. It looks at his work in the UK and features many of his most famous images with a new introduction by Tom Allbeson, Senior Lecturer in Media History, Cardiff University  and Karen McQuaid, Senior Curator, The Photographers’ Gallery

Bert Hardy was born in London in May 1913. The eldest of seven children in a working-class family, he left school aged fourteen to work as a messenger collecting and delivering film and prints from West End chemists for a film processing company. Captivated by photography, he bought a plate camera from a pawnbroker’s shop and using his sister’s head as a tripod, snapped King George V and Queen Mary passing by in a carriage down Blackfriars Road. Bert printed off 200 postcards and sold them around the neighbourhood. A photographic career was launched.

Combining his interests of cycling and photography, he began freelancing for The Bicycle magazine, where he came into contact with the new miniature 35mm cameras. Buying a second-hand Leica, he worked for a photographic agency before being taken on as a staff photographer at the prestigious Picture Post magazine in 1940 before being called away to join the Army’s photographic unit, covering the Normandy Landings, the Allies march into Paris, the crossing into Germany, and the traumatic liberation of Belsen concentration camp. He returned to Picture Post and was responsible for some of their greatest features.

Title: Bert Hardy Britain Through his Lens 1938-1957
Publisher: Blue Coat Press, 2024
Authors: Tom Albeson, Karen McQuaid and Diane Smyth
Photographer: Bert Hardy
Graphic Design: Tom Booth Woodger & Safia Mirzai
Format: Paperback
Size: 66 pages
ISBN: 9781908457844