Telling Stories: Picture Post and its Legacy
James Hyman Gallery
48 Maddox Street, London
29 March–29 April 2022

James Hyman Gallery are delighted to announce the opening of two new galleries at 48 and 50 Maddox Street in Mayfair. At 48 Maddox Street, the gallery is staging the exhibition Telling Stories: Picture Post and its Legacy. The exhibition presents some of the key photographers of Picture Post magazine as well as curated selection of some later British photographers who built on this storytelling or documentary tradition.

The exhibition features works by Shirley Baker, Bill Brandt, Anna Fox, Ken Grant, Brian Griffin, Bert Hardy, Nigel Henderson, Paul Hill, Thurston Hopkins, David Hurn, Kurt Hutton, Colin Jones, Dafydd Jones, Chris Killip, Karen Knorr, Marketa Luskacova, Roger Mayne, Daniel Meadows, Jim Mortram, Martin Parr, Charlie Phillips, Tony Ray-Jones, Paul Reas, Grace Robertson, Jo Spence, Wolfgang Suschitzky, Homer Sykes, Jon Tonks.

Included in the exhibition are works from Karen Knorr’s 1979–1981 series Belgravia. In the work, images and texts describe class and power amongst the international and wealthy during the beginning of Thatcherism in London during 1979. The work describes the ‘everyday’ of a privileged minority. Historically, portraiture of the upper classes has tended to be flattering but the combination of image and text brings this work closer to satire and caricature, without losing the strong reality effect specific to photography. The meaning of the work can be found in the space between image and text: neither text nor image illustrate each other, but create a “third meaning” to be completed by the spectator. More information about the series can be found on Karen Knorr’s website.