Art in Chambers:
Photography by Wolf Suschitzky
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Art in Chambers
The images on our website are photographs which currently hang in Chambers’ common areas. They were taken by Wolf Suschitzky, a Viennese photographer whose work is exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide.
Wolf Suschitzky was born in Vienna in 1912 and has been living in London since 1935. His photographs are a fascinating record of everyday life in London during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Having moved to London, he became the assistant to a cameraman filming at London Zoo following which he met Paul Rotha, one of the leading exponents of British documentary film, whose works (together with those of John Grierson and Robert Lathery) form the foundation of modern documentary film making. This observational style is evident in Wolf Suschitzky’s photographs.
Suschitzky’s commitment to incorporating the general public into a progressive photographic culture played a key role in developing Britain’s illustrated magazine and photographic publishing industries. It influenced the reportage style of photography which is so commonly seen in magazines and newspapers today, breaking the mould of the more static studio portrait.
VE Day, Picadilly
London, 1945
Untitled
Embankment
London 1947
Street Cleaner, Westminster
London 1934
In those days street cleaners in Westminster had rather splendid hats. We had "fog" very often, because open coal fires were being used for heating homes. This fog was, at times, advantageous to photographers like me.
Hyde Park
London, 1934
“Grazing sheep were once employed to look after Hyde Park’s lawns. This photograph depicts a shepherd and his dog, keeping an eye on the sheep.”
Charing Cross Road
London, 1937
“I was pointing my camera towards Cambridge Circus. Years later I discovered that I had been outside No 84 Charing Cross Road. One can just make out the name of the shop, Marks & Co.”
Foyles, Charing Cross Road
London, 1936
“I find this picture symbolic for the Charing Cross Road. Foyles was the largest book shop in London at this time. It occupied two houses in the street of books, and it was an appropriate background for the reading gentleman.”
Coliseum Dairy
London, 1936
St.Paul's Cathedral
London, 1942
“I had to take this picture for the record. To show what it was like.”
The copyright for the images on our website and the prints in Chambers belongs exclusively to Wolf Suschitzky. 1 Chancery Lane has been granted the non-exclusive right to use the images. Any enquiries regarding Wolf Suschitzky’s work should be directed to The Photographers’ Gallery, 5 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7HY, Tel: 020 7831 1772, www.photonet.org.uk.