Wolfgang Suschitzky: Man with a Camera

“Composition is not a matter of rules, it's a matter of taste.”

~ Wolfgang Suschitzky

This is the most autobiographical photograph I have ever collected. I was born in the East End of London into a very modest background to say the least. My parents had both left school at 13 years old. I always dreamed that outside our tiny apartment there was a bigger world to explore. Every Saturday morning I used to take myself on the tube “Up West” to Central London and Charing Cross Road depicted here where there were rows and rows of second hand bookstores where, for literally pennies, I could find second hand books to feed my curiosity plus a second hand jazz record store called Dobells where I could listen to jazz records for hours that I could not afford to buy. This was my weekly ritual and Charing Cross Road became my cultural nirvana. Flash forward, I see this image about thirty years ago and wham that was it and I met its creator - Wolf Suschitzky. On every trip back to London I would visit Wolf in his little appartment. He was a gentleman from the “old Middle European School." We had our own special ritual. He would brew me the greatest Viennese coffee and there would always be the most delicious apple strudel to accompany it. And then we would talk for hours and look through his archives. I always discovered something new and special there. I thought he was such a truly great and under-appreciated photographer and promoting his work became my “Mission,” to secure him the recognition I felt he deserved. It still is...He passed away at 104 years old and to be honest there is not a day I don’t think about him as I live surrounded by his work.

~ Peter Fetterman

“Great photography is a combination of the right choice of detail, the elimination of all that is inessential and the right moment that makes the picture”

 

~ Wolfgang Suschitzky

“I’ve never "arranged” my photographs, I’ve always been an observer.”

~ Wolfgang Suschitzky