Bert Hardy 1913 - 1995

occupation:
Photographer
Nationality:
British
born in:
Blackfriars, City of London, London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom

He signed on with the General Photographic Agency as a photographer, then found his own freelance firm Criterion. Worked for Picture Post. Served as a war photographer. Was Lord Mountbatton's personal photographer. Retired in 1964.

Related Objects

Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "Millions Like Her." Originally published in Picture Post, January 13, 1951. Story titled "Millions Like Her". Image shows Birmingham shop girl Betty Burden, speaking to a neighbourhood boy from the window of the family home. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Millions Like Her
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "Where Society Knows No Colour Prejudice: Liverpool School-children at Play." Originally published in Picture Post, July 2, 1949. Story titled "Is There a British Colour Bar?", about racism in Britain. Caption in magazine reads: "On the roof of Windsor Street County School, in the South End of Liverpool, white and coloured children play naturally together. They attach no meaning to differences of colour. A white and coloured child will often be 'best friends'. From such children society can learn a valuable lesson." Photographer's stamp on verso.

Where Society Knows No Colour Prejudice: Liverpool School-children at Play
Vintage silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, titled "Home life: The Gorbals." A sixteen-year-old girl sits at a kitchen table in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, while another child lies on a makeshift bed behind her. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Home life: The Gorbals
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "On the Curb of a Liverpool Pavement a Coloured British Subject Expresses the Indignation of His People". Originally published in Picture Post, July 2, 1949. Story titled "Is There a British Colour Bar?", about racism in Britain. Caption in magazine reads: "Officially there is no colour bar in Britain. But from restaurant-keepers and landladies, employers and employees, even from the man in the street, says Nathaniel Ajayi, he and his people meet with considerable colour prejudice. Ajayi has lived in five European countries, was a British Prisoner-of-war in Germany, but says he knows of no European country where the coloured man is treated with more unofficial contempt than in Britain." Photographer's stamp on verso.

On the Curb of a Liverpool Pavement a Coloured British Subject Expresses the Indignation of His People
Contact sheet by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image shows how Hardy produced the panoramic photo of Queen Elizabeth II's visit to the Paris Opera in 1957. Hardy had no wide-angle lens, so he took consecutive photographs of different sections of the scene. These separate shots were joined up in a jigsaw to create the picture below. Originally published in Picture Post, April 20, 1957. Photographer's stamp on verso.

How Bert Hardy Photographed the Queen's Visit to Paris
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "Part of the Image of the Elephant: The Horse Dealers". Originally published in Picture Post Vol. 42, No. 2, January 8, 1949. Story titled "Life in the Elephant", about everyday life in London's Elephant and Castle neighbourhood. Caption in magazine reads: "The face of the Elephant wears all expressions -- victorious, defeated, homely and hoodlum. The live look of the working girl, the dead pan of the wide boy. The waggish grin of the barrow-monger buying a pony in the Horse repository. Faces to laugh at. Faces to wink at. Faces that hit you like a blow." Photographer's stamp on verso.

Part of the Image of the Elephant: The Horse Dealers
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image shows a group of people standing outside a house in London's East End. For a Picture Post story titled "The East End at War", September 28, 1940. Photographer's stamp on verso.

The East End at War
Vintage silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, showing Hardy sitting on the side of a dirt road in South Korea while assigned by Picture Post to cover the Korean War. Hardy travelled to Korea with Jimmy Cameron in August 1950. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Bert Hardy in Korea
Contact sheet by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image shows Queen Elizabeth II visiting the Paris Opera. Originally published in Picture Post, April 20, 1957. Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Queen's Visit to Paris
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Night of the Blitz:." Originally published in Picture Post, February 1, 1941. Story titled "Fire-Fighters!", about fire fighters during the London Blitz. Caption in magazine reads: "The night is dark. The city is silent. On the roofs of high buildings stand the spotters. Overhead the pulsing drone of enemy bombers. Suddenly a bomb falls, then another. Somewhere, a burning building starts to light up the sky. Immediately the warning is given." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Night of the Blitz
Silver gelatin contact sheet by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Photos of Princess Elizabeth's wedding to Prince Philip. Printed in Picture Post, November 29, 1947. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Wedding of Princess Elizabeth

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