Oliver Bernard
Photograph
ca. 1956 (photographed)
ca. 1956 (photographed)
| Artist/Maker |
Deakin’s portraits, such as this image of the poet Oliver Bernard, have a stark and unforgiving quality that seems to delve deep into the soul of the sitter. He wrote of them in his unpublished manuscript Eight Portraits, ‘Being fatally drawn to the human race, what I want to do when I photograph it is to make a revelation about it. So my sitters turn into my victims’.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Oliver Bernard (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Gelatin-silver print |
| Brief description | Portrait of Oliver Bernard, gelatin-silver print, by John Deakin, ca. 1956 |
| Physical description | Portrait of Oliver Bernard - showing his head, full face, against a white wall. He wears a collar and dark tie and jacket. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Copyright John Deakin Archive |
| Object history | John Deakin made portraits of celebrities and of his bohemian circle of friends in London's Soho in the early 1950's. Deakin wanted to be a painter rather than a photographer and neglected his photographs: the majority have been destroyed or damaged. In part, his attitude reflected the general status of photography in Britain in the 1950's, as an undervalued artistic medium. After his dismissal from Vogue he photographed street scenes in Paris and Rome. Deakin’s reputation was re-evaluated following an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1984. John Deakin Archive |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Deakin’s portraits, such as this image of the poet Oliver Bernard, have a stark and unforgiving quality that seems to delve deep into the soul of the sitter. He wrote of them in his unpublished manuscript Eight Portraits, ‘Being fatally drawn to the human race, what I want to do when I photograph it is to make a revelation about it. So my sitters turn into my victims’. |
| Bibliographic reference | p. 55
Robin Muir, Under the influence : John Deakin, photography and the lure of Soho London : Art Books : in association with the John Deakin Archive and The Photographer's Gallery, 2014. ISBN: 9781908970152 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.574-1995 |
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| Record created | August 19, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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