Humphrey Spender
Humphrey Spender | |
---|---|
Maldon , England | |
Occupation(s) | Artist, designer, photographer |
Years active | 1935–2005 |
Spouses |
|
Children | 2 |
Humphrey Spender (19 April 1910 – 11 March 2005) was a British photographer, painter, and designer.
Family and education
Humphrey Spender was the third son of Harold Spender, a journalist and writer.[1] Humphrey's mother, Violet Schuster, came from a German family who had emigrated to Britain in the 1870s. Violet died in 1921 and Harold Spender died in 1926. Humphrey had two brothers, the poet Stephen Spender and the scientist and explorer Michael Spender, and one sister, Christine.
As a child, Humphrey learnt photography from his older brother Michael Spender and was given a handsome German camera for his tenth birthday. After attending
Career
He went on to set up a photography studio on the Strand with Bill Edmiston, who was his lover.[1] Spender was renowned for his commercial photography. During this time he took photographs for advertisements as well as magazines like Harper's Bazaar. In the mid-1930s, he was recruited to work for the Daily Mirror under the nickname 'Lensman'.
Spender became a member of the
With the coming of World War II, Spender served briefly in the Royal Army Service Corps before being appointed an official war photographer. He also worked as an interpreter of photo-reconnaissance pictures, identifying German rocket sites and making maps for D-Day.
In December 1944 during
Spender also recounted a time he heard Adolf Hitler speak at a public gathering in Berlin in 1939. He said his voice was "very powerful and commanding".[citation needed]
In about 1955 he abandoned photography for painting and textile design, and taught at the Royal College of Art from 1953 until he retired in 1975.
In 1968, Spender moved to
Marriages
Spender's first wife, Margaret Low, with whom he adopted a son, died in 1945. His second wife, Pauline Wynn, with whom he had a son, died in 2003. He then married the photographer Rachel Hewitt, who was more than fifty years younger.
Spender had told his wives before marrying them that he was bisexual, like his brother Stephen Spender, and he had affairs with both men and women throughout his life, including Frederick Ashton and Eslanda Goode Robeson.[4][5]
References
- ^ a b c "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online". Oxford University Press. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
- ^ "Bolton Worktown | Photographs and archives from the Bolton Mass Observation project".
- ISBN 978-0275954703.
- ^ Independent obituary, 14 March 2005
- ^ Times obituary, 15 March 2005
- Humphrey Spender: Artist whose photographs of the working classes became regarded as an invaluable historical record, obituary in Daily Telegraph (London, England) 15 March 2005, from Humphrey Spenderat Newspapers Online Gale (accessed 22 August 2007)