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Michael Chambers, left, and Wolfgang Suschitzky |
Alone under the
English skies
IT sounded like a cliché when the owner of Chambers Gallery, Michael Chambers, described Wolfgang Suschitzky’s superb photographs as full of “love” and “humanity” but you only have to look at his work to see exactly what Chambers meant.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, Suschitzky went from a sharp observer of London life of the 1930s to a photographer sought after by magazines, documentary makers and then by film directors.
Take a close look at some of his street scenes of Charing Cross, Hampstead Heath and Bloomsbury and you can see the similarities with the great Cartier Bresson. His portraits, like all great ones, subtly capture a quality that give you a key to the person’s inner-self.
Opening the exhibition at the gallery in the Barbican on Thursday was a particular poignant moment for Chambers who said “Su had worked with his father, Jack, an eminent film maker of the 40s and 50s.
“I grew up with Su. I can only all him Su because that’s what I’ve always known him as. He was one of my father’s closest friends.
“In these photographs you can see the deep humanity that comes from him. A love of life, both human and animal. He sees the world with a living eye – and his love of people comes through – European, African, Asian people at work and play. People whose hard lives are written on their faces. He captures all this with feeling and sensitivity.
“His photographs are of social commentary, showing respect for ordinary hard-working people. He shows us the slums of London in the 30s; they are beautiful and capture the sense of a place in a single unforgettable image.”
Thanking him, 97-year-old Wolfgang Suchitzky, who lives in Maida Vale, said he had worked with Michael’s father who left school at 14 and became a great film maker.
Modestly, he didn’t talk about how he began his career or describe any of his masterpieces or reflect on his philosophy of life. I suppose he thought the photographers could talk for themselves. And they did.
JOHN GULLIVER
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