David Hurn Exhibition
There was an under trailed programme on BBC television about David Hurn, a photographer who started in the 60’s with fashion then moved on to celebrity photographs notably Jane Fonda in Barbarella and Sean Connery in the Bond movies. The programme is a delight and you may still be able to find on BBC iPlayer.
It is charming because at the age of 83 Hurn is still as enthusiastic about photography as he has been all his life.
Before photography became art and pictures sold for thousands, Hurn would swap his pictures with other photographers. As a result, he has a vast and valuable photograph collection with images from all the great photographers of the 20th Century. Last year he exhibited at Photo London. The exhibition which was co-curated with Martin Parr marked the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos and included work that Hurn had swapped with Bill Brandt, Bruce Davidson, Sergio Larrain and Diana Markosian.
In the programme, he explains his rationale for donating his collection to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. There was an exhibition of the collection which has now finished, and there are no plans I understand for a further exhibition at present.
David Hurn, however, is primarily a documentary photographer:
and I have collected some of his work here.