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Images made for 'Bert Hardy at Work: The Picture Post Years'

A collection of contact sheets and prints, 1938-1956, incorporated in the exhibition `Bert Hardy at Work: The Picture Post Years', NMPFT, 1985.

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Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "A Foothold in Hades." An alternate shot was published in Picture Post, Vol. 49 No. 1, October 7, 1950, in a Korean War story titled "Inchon". Photographer's stamp on verso.

A Foothold in Hades 2

1950
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Rocket-launching Ships Go in to the Kill." Originally published in Picture Post, October 7, 1950. Story titled "Inchon", about the Korean War. Caption in magazine reads: "Slavoes of five-inch projectiles tear into the beaches about to be stormed, and into the town about to be liberated." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Rocket-launching Ships Go in to the Kill

1950
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Overcrowding that is Typical of Conditions in the Coloured Quarters of Some British Towns." Originally published in Picture Post, July 2, 1949. Story titled "Is There a British Colour Bar?", about racism in Britain. Caption in magazine reads: "Mrs. Johnson lives with two daughters, whose husbands are seamen, and eleven grandchildren. She and six grandchildren sleep in three beds in this room: Mrs. Johnson and two children in the bed, top right, three children in the bed on the left, and an older grand-daughter in the bed in the foreground." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Overcrowding that is Typical of Conditions in the Coloured Quarters of Some British Towns

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Air of an Industrial Present". 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: "Railway arches everywhere. And under every other arch, a coal-yard. The coalman's wagon is a vital part of the Elephant's sooty scene." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Air of an Industrial Present

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The One Who Takes It All to Heart". 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: "Sunday the lay-in, the divorce news in bed, the sobering brass of the Salvation Army, and a discreet harangue in streets deserted of all but the chastened children." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The One Who Takes It All to Heart

1949
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

1949
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

20 April 1957
Chromogenic print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "School in the Open-Air on the Siwunula Native Reserve". Originally published in Picture Post, July 7, 1956. Story titled "The Birth of a New Nation", about Rhodesia. Image shows a mother and baby on a native reserve in what is now Zimbabwe. Caption in magazine reads: "School is compulsory for children between six and fourteen." Photographer's stamp on verso. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Open-Air School on the Siwunula Native Reserve

1956
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Waiting Room Where Even Elephant Folk Are Subdued". 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: "Some come with a sore chest from a damp house. Some come with a boy sick from a salmon tin. All wait for the overworked doctor in his bombed and shored-up surgery." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Waiting Room Where Even Elephant Folk Are Subdued

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "In Thousands of Similar Basements Live Tens of Thousands of Similar Folk: Yet Each Is Different". 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: "There are countless rooms like it at the Elephant, innumerable folk in the same image. Yet every one is special. The hunger, the love, the dreams and imaginations, are all shared by all, yet particular to each. One contemplates a new job, another a new boy-friend. Somebody plans to bath a baby. Somebody plans to burgle a baker's. Somebody wonders if her husband's untrue. Somebody wonders how much he'll make tonight at his chestnut can." Photographer's stamp on verso.

In Thousands of Similar Basements Live Tens of Thousands of Similar Folk: Yet Each Is Different

1949
Chromogenic print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled Preparing Groundnuts." Originally published in Picture Post, July 7, 1956. Story titled "The Birth of a New Nation", about Rhodesia. Image shows a mother and baby on a native reserve in what is now Zimbabwe. Caption in magazine reads: "The Reserve in which she lives is thirty miles long by twelve wide, and lies between Salisbury and Bulawayo. Each family has nine acres for crops and a smaller plot for vegetables. The Reserve grows maize, rice, buts and beans. But many work in the nearest town." Photographer's stamp on verso.

Preparing Groundnuts

1956
Contact sheet by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image taken for the "Is There a British Colour Bar?" Picture Post, July 2, 1949. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Is There a British Colour Bar - Contact sheet

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Emblem of the Cockney World". 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: "Seven bridges point straight to it. Six traffic arteries meet at its heart, From the top of the pub, the elephant with its castle dominates London's liveliest domain." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Emblem of the Cockney World

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "A Ghost Strayed from Old Greece". 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: "Corinthian pillars in a Hogarthian slum. In the burnt-out Metropolitan Tabernacle, Victorian preacher Spurgeon raised his warning voice on Thursdays and Sundays." Photographer's stamp on verso.

A Ghost Strayed from Old Greece

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Old-Age Pensioner". 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: "Rustic among Cockneys is Charles Hobson (82), former gamekeeper and artist's model." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Old-Age Pensioner

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "A Drop." Originally published in Picture Post, August 1, 1953. Story titled "Picture Post Takes a River Trip to Southend". Image shows a group of four men enjoying beer during a pleasure boat cruise along the Thames to Southend. Caption in magazine reads: "A drop or two of what you fancy, you can keep all your concert party artistes." Photographer's stamp on verso.

A Drop

1953
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

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Elephant's Rich Variety: Its Country Past". 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: "Few know the rusty-looking smithy in Burman Street. Yet 80-year-old William Surridge has been blacksmith here for half his life." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Elephant's Rich Variety

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "One Who's Seen Them Come and Go". 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: "Local brides get bouquets, local corpses get wreaths from Lal Brown (centre). She's been here 50 years odd, since she was eight." Photographer's stamp on verso.

One Who's Seen Them Come and Go

1949
Chromogenic print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "As the Sun Sets." Originally published in Picture Post, September 15, 1956. Story titled "Where the Rice is Sweet", about rice harvesting in Portugal. Caption in magazine reads: "As the sun sets the last rice is carried onto the wagons. Once its cultivation, thought to spread malaria, was banned. Now it is a major item in the trade balance." Photographer's stamp on verso.

As the Sun Sets

1956
Silver gelatin contact sheet by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985.Photos taken with a Box Brownie camera in Blackpool. Originally published in Picture Post, July 7, 1951. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Blackpool - Taken on a Box Brownie

1951
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "Prospect for Elephant Baby". 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: "When she grows up her bath will still be a basin. Unless she moves. Or the Elephant changes." Photographer's stamp on verso.

Prospect for Elephant Baby

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "Social Segregation That Can Lead to Trouble." Originally published in Picture Post, July 2, 1949. Story titled "Is There a British Colour Bar?", about racism in Britain. Caption in magazine reads: "In most towns coloured people live together in close communities. In such communities grievances are brooded on more bitterly." Photographer's stamp on verso.

Social Segregation That Can Lead to Trouble

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image shows two young boys in the Gorbals slums in Glasgow. Published in Picture Post, January 31, 1948. Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Gorbals

31 January 1948
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "One Who Prefers Them to Stick Around". 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: "King of street-traders is Jim Rumble. His art: a genial compound of oaths and insult. His science: to sell £100-worth of stuff in a morning." Photographer's stamp on verso.

One Who Prefers Them to Stick Around

1949
Contact sheet cut into three strips, by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image taken for the "Fire-Fighters!" story in Picture Post, February 1, 1941. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Contact sheet showing firemen during the Blitz

1941
Contact sheet cut into three strips, by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image taken for the "Fire-Fighters!" story in Picture Post, February 1, 1941. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Contact sheet showing firemen during the Blitz

1941
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

1941
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Self-portrait of Hardy wearing a trilby hat and tweed coat. He is holding a Contax camera. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Photograph of Bert Hardy

circa 1930s
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Man on the Ladder: In Clouds of Smoke and Steam He Faces the Fire Alone." Originally published in Picture Post, February 1, 1941. Story titled "Fire-Fighters!", about fire fighters during the London Blitz. Caption in magazine reads: "All night long they have fought the fire. They have fought in the streets streaming with water. They have fought it within buildings blazing like a furnace. On to the flames they have poured a hundred thousand gallons of water, concentrated at colossal pressure. And still the fight goes on. From our rule of anonymity we except these pictures. They were taken by A. Hardy [sic], one of our own cameramen." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Man on the Ladder

1941
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "Firemen Rush Down to Man the Engines." Originally published in Picture Post, February 1, 194. Story titled "Fire-Fighters!", about fire fighters during the London Blitz. Caption in magazine reads: "The bells ring. The indicators light up. In a few seconds the firemen are in the Appliance Room and manning their engines." Photographer's stamp on verso.

Firemen Rush Down to Man the Engines

1941
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

1951
Contact sheet cut into two strips, by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image taken for the "Fire-Fighters!" story in Picture Post, February 1, 1941. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Contact sheet showing firemen during the Blitz

1941
Contact sheet cut into three strips, by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image taken for the "Fire-Fighters!" story in Picture Post, February 1, 1941. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Contact sheet showing firemen during the Blitz

1941
Contact sheet cut into two strips, by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image taken for the "Fire-Fighters!" story in Picture Post, February 1, 1941. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Contact sheet showing firemen during the Blitz

1941
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

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Gloomy Yard That Fails to Damp the Spirit". 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: "A losing battle with the grimy air. Two bob where four should be. And nowhere to keep the baby's pram. Yet still the local housewife is a battler, whose tone has eloquence and force." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Gloomy Yard That Fails to Damp the Spirit

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "One With a Nose for Bargains". 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: "Lino today, stamps tomorrow. Whatever's cheap in the market is seen all over the area." Photographer's stamp on verso.

One With a Nose for Bargains

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "In the Salvation Army Hostel, They Turn in Early". 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: "470 beds in rows. 470 sleepers in ranks. Men who know more about hunger than ambition. Men who've learned the value of friendship better than the value of things." Photographer's stamp on verso.

In the Salvation Army Hostel, They Turn in Early

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, showing Hardy's grandchildren in 1978. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Bert Hardy's Grandchildren

1978
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Two Who Don't Much Care". 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: "Life is real, life is earnest. But there's always sports books, dream books, books of true confessions." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Two Who Don't Much Care

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "A Sight That is One of the Symbols of the District: People of the Elephant Line Up for their Eels". 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: "Cow-heel for Manchester. Chaps for Bath. But Eel for the Elephant. Hot, a shilling a basin; jellied, two shillings. Pea-soup, 4d. and 6d a time. Those in line have the patient, no-kidding look of folk given to thinking in pence, not pounds, and to wondering daily where the pence have gone." Photographer's stamp on verso.

People of the Elephant Line Up for their Eels

1949
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

20 April 1957
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "One With an Eye for Pageants". 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: "Always something to lean on. Always something worthwhile to look at in the endless procession." Photographer's stamp on verso.

One With an Eye for Pageants

1949
Contact sheet by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image taken for the "Is There a British Colour Bar?" Picture Post, July 2, 1949. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Is There a British Colour Bar - Contact sheet

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Elephant by Night Is a Different Place Thronged with Different People". 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 multifarious bustle still goes on at night. But the slums are masked. The watching bricks unfreeze. Manners and customs mellow in the light of the stalls. The all-day workers relax, as they make for the movies or the boxing match. The all-day idlers become purposeful as they drift to cheap beds." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Elephant by Night Is a Different Place Thronged with Different People

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image shows two women wearing dresses and sitting on a promenade railing at Blackpool Beach. Photo taken with a Box Brownie camera and originally published in Picture Post, July 7, 1951. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Blackpool - Taken on a Box Brownie

1951
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "In Thousands of Similar Basements Live Tens of Thousands of Similar Folk: Yet Each Is Different". 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: "There are countless rooms like it at the Elephant, innumerable folk in the same image. Yet every one is special. The hunger, the love, the dreams and imaginations, are all shared by all, yet particular to each. One contemplates a new job, another a new boy-friend. Somebody plans to bath a baby. Somebody plans to burgle a baker's. Somebody wonders if her husband's untrue. Somebody wonders how much he'll make tonight at his chestnut can." Photographer's stamp on verso.

In Thousands of Similar Basements Live Tens of Thousands of Similar Folk: Yet Each Is Different

1949
Contact sheet by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985. Image taken for the "Is There a British Colour Bar?" Picture Post, July 2, 1949. Photographer's stamp on verso.

Is There a British Colour Bar - Contact sheet

1949
Silver gelatin print by Bert Hardy, printed in 1985, titled "The Paper-Baler." Originally published in Picture Post, July 2, 1949. Story titled "Is There a British Colour Bar?", about racism in Britain. Caption in magazine reads: "It's fairly easy to get unskilled work, except in Liverpool. Paper-baler Benson has worked happily for a London Council for two years." Photographer's stamp on verso.

The Paper-Baler

1949