40
B+W
Three men in cloth caps, probably coal miners, Durham, 1974.while my eyes were still fresh, it would be
a good thing to do.’
Dividing the country up geographically,
he set out on the project. ‘One of the things
that had tempted me to do it,’ he says,
‘was Robert Frank’s book The Americans.
I thought that he didn’t really do the
Americans justice – there were a lot of good
things in the book but I felt it was a bit of a
jukebox look at America. And so I tried to
get a more rounded look at the English.’
It was the mid 70s and a time when
access was relatively straightforward for
photographers. ‘You asked permission and
then you were allowed in,’ he says. ‘And I
had a stroke of luck – I was commissioned
by the editor of the Architectural Review,
who invited several photographers to do a
complete issue of the magazine. He asked
me to do health and welfare, which got me
into schools, hospitals, doctors’ waiting
rooms and so on. These days it’s much
harder.’ Berry’s quiet and gentle manner,
even though it belies a firm determination,has given him access to places that many
would have been denied. ‘I’ve been arrested
more times than I’ve had hot dinners,’
he says. ‘But I find that if you are polite
and pleasant, you are all right.’ It didn’t
help much, however, when it came to
photographing the upper classes:
‘They always insisted on putting a damn
horse in the background,’ he says.N
ow in his early eighties, he is still
travelling the world in search
of photo stories, particularly
in China. ‘These days it’s much
easier – you have the internet and you
can find out about things before you go.Twenty years ago you went somewhere
and found out about it when you got there.’
Indefatigable, he looks with quiet scorn at
the suggestion that he should be slowing
down. ‘If you retire, you die,’ he says flatly.
Ian Berry has travelled the world covering
conflicts, famines, disasters, wars and
human tragedies, but he still retains a light
in his eye and a quiet humour. ‘It’s not all
Washington riots or what’s happening in
Baghdad, you know,’ he says. ‘There are
interludes that are lighter. Yes, it can be fun.’The English by Ian Berry is on at
the Lucy Bell Gallery until 9 January.
46 Norman Road, St Leonards-on-Sea
TN38 OEJ; lucy-bell.com.‘I’ve been arrested more times
than I’ve had hot dinners,’he says. ‘But I fi nd that if
you are polite and pleasant,
you are all right.’
Opposite top
Doctors’ waiting room in Battersea, 1969.
Opposite bottom
A hospital in the Midlands , 1969.36-41_IAN_BERRY_185 ER/MB2.indd 4036-41_IAN_BERRY_185 ER/MB2.indd 40 02/12/2015 10:4902/12/2015 10:49