The preface to this year’s volume tells us that readers will find “a large number of pictures they will like, and some they may not understand.”
To my mind this volume has an unusually large number of dull and uninteresting photographs including still lifes so pedestrian that it strains credulity that they were accepted for publication. Elsewhere we find the usual icky child photographs, the icky pet photographs and the ever-popular oldies with wrinkled faces. “Geese,” shown above, is one of the more dynamic entries.
“Study in Stone” is an interesting exercise in symmetry and contrast and represents a style still popular today.
This study of the dancers Lalla Cassel and John Carlberg would also not be out of place in a collection of modern photographs though it could be seen as too posed and not showing any movement.
“Death of Cleopatra” harks back to Victorian paintings of classical themes, a sort of black and white homage to the colourful paintings of Alma-Tadema.
There’s an unusual number of nudes in this volume – eight in total. I’ve picked out “Echo” for a couple of reasons. Firstly it references Greek mythology this time, where Echo is a mountain Nymph cursed by Hera to only repeat the last words she hears until she fades away leaving only her voice. Secondly the photographer is Betram Parks, who together with his photographer wife Yvonne Gregory, were some of the most interesting artists of their day. Famed for society portraits and producing publicity images for theatrical performances they were also well-known for their female nudes. They published several books including the 1935 “The Beauty of the Female Form.” (About £60 from Abebooks if you’re interested). They also published photographs in naturist publications such as “Health and Efficiency.”
Bertram Parks and Yvonne Gregory are worthy of a future blog post as there are many other fascinating facts about their lives and works.