“The ideal picture tells something of the essence of life. It sums up emotion, it holds the feeling of movement, thereby implying the continuity of life. It shows some aspect of humanity, the way that the person who looks at the picture will at once recognize as startlingly true.”
~ Bert Hardy
(1913-1990)
Bert was born in London in 1913, the eldest of seven children in a working-class family. He left school at 14 to work as a messenger, collecting and delivering film and prints from West End chemists for a film processing company. Fascinated by photography and combining it with his love of cycling, he began freelancing for The Bicycle magazine, where he first encountered the new miniature 35mm cameras.
After purchasing a second-hand Leica, he worked for a photographic agency before joining the prestigious Picture Post as a staff photographer in 1940—the English equivalent of Life magazine. All collecting is, of course, autobiographical, and this work takes me back to my early days in London. I love the small details of English daily life, especially those cups of tea on the left-hand side of the image. Memories come flooding back.
