Wednesday 15 May 2013

Edith Tudor-Hart: Quiet Radicalism

This was the title of an exhibition I went to see at the Open Eye gallery in Liverpool in March.

 Family, Stepney c.1932

Austrian born Edith Tudor-Heart was a photographer, Communist-sympathiser and spy for the Soviet Union who used photography as a tool to communicate her political ideas.

Whitechapel c.1935

After studying at Bauhaus, she fled Vienna in 1933 to escape persecution and settled in Britain. She became an early photojournalist and was later instrumental in setting up the notorious Cambridge Spy Ring.

Gee Street, Finsbury c.1936

During the 1930's much of her work documented the living conditions of working communities in London, the North of England and Wales.


Fountain Hospital, London 1951

Following the war her focus shifted towards social care (her own son suffered from schizophrenia). She produced some amazing and compassionate images that were used in print campaigns for children with special needs and disabilities.

This was a very small exhibition but hugely impressive. I think this is reportage work of the highest order.

All images copyright the estate of Edith Tudor-Heart/Wolf Suschitzky and thanks to the OE Gallery for some excellent notes.

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