12 22 February 2020 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
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until 14 March.Monday-
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A United Kingdom
By Bruce Davidson
ThelegendaryMagnumphotographer’sshowincludes
someofhisrarelyseenwork,asAmyDaviesdiscovers
EXHIBITION
O
n commission for The
Queen magazine,
American photographer
Bruce Davidson travelled
to the UK in the autumn of 1960.
Given free rein to create his personal
portrait of the country, he toured for
just over two months, spending a
number of weeks in London before
moving on to the south coast, then
heading north to Scotland.Woman on tube holding flowers, London, 1960
His travels showed him a country that,
in parts, appeared untouched since the
1930s, alongside a society that was
driven by difference while still emerging
from post-war trauma and several years
of cuts and austerity.
He pointed his lens towards the
extremes of city and country life, as well
as shifting social and cultural attitudes.
Particularly drawn towards the teenager,
he was keen to show the growingdisparity between youth and age.
Eventually published in April 1961
under the title Seeing Ourselves as an
American Sees Us: A Picture Essay on
Britain the results show arguably what
was the last remnant of a nation
vanishing into modern things and ways
of thinking yet to come.
Also on display are photographs shot
by Davidson in Wales during the
mid-1960s. The story goes that the
photographer, while serving in the
army, asked a Welsh sergeant where he
would send his worst enemy. The
answer: Cwmcarn.
Years later, while on assignment
photographing Caernarfon Castle in the
north of the country, he decided to finally
pay a visit to the town in the Ebbw Valley
in the south. A mining town, it was known
for its social deprivation, along with the
scars left on the landscape from many
years of heavy industry.