Israel Bidermanas’ London
Lithuanian-born Israel Bidermanas (1911-1980) first achieved recognition under the identity of Izis for his portraits of members of the French resistance that he took while in hiding near Limoges at the time of the German invasion. Encouraged by Brassai, he pursued a career as a professional photographer in peacetime, fulfilling commissions for Paris Match and befriending Jacques Prévert and Marc Chagall. He and Prévert were inveterate urban wanderers and in 1952 they published ‘Charmes de Londres,’ delivering this vivid and poetic vision of the shabby old capital in the threadbare post-war years.
In the cemetery of St John, Wapping
Milk cart in Gordon Sq, Bloomsbury
At Club Row animal market, Spitalfields
The Nag’s Head, Kinnerton St, W1
In Pennyfields, Limehouse
Palace St, Westminster
Ties on sale in Ming St, Limehouse
Greengrocer, Kings Rd, Chelsea
Diver in the London Docks
Organ Grinder, Shaftesbury Ave, Piccadilly
Sphinx, Chiswick Park
Hampden Crescent, W2
Underhill Passage, Camden Town
Braithwaite Arches, Wheler St, Spitalfields
East India Dock Rd, Limehouse
Musical instrument seller, Petticoat Lane
Grosvenor Crescent Mews, Hyde Park Corner
Unloading in the London Docks
London Electricity Board Apprentices
On the waterfront at Greenwich
Tower Bridge
Photographs courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
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Such a brilliant photographer, Bob Mazzer has a similar eye I think
Another beautiful set. It may be something about the photos’ processing, but if the one with the spivs’ ties had been omitted I’d have guessed that they were from the 1930’s, not the immediate post-war period.
What wonderful photos!
And when was the last time you saw small boys up trees?
I do not have an artistic vocabulary to explain why but there is a European sensibility here. Composition? Lenses? Filters? Whatever, they have a very stylish dramatic quality. A very charming addition to the wide range of photographs you keep bringing to the attention of you readers.
Great short article, better yet are the photographs of old areas, which in my mind’s way of comparing old photos parts of a city, the wharf, along waterways, these remind me of St. Louis MO. USA old wharf on the MS 1970- before the old historical area was torn down. Joke, amusement for the visitors, The St. Louis Arch???
This post starts off with an irresistible image (the couple on the carousel) and then EACH additional photo is a show stopper. An incredible suite of images, provoking rampant stories.
What an incredible gritty eternal city!? He’s captured it.
Many thanks.
Wonderful, impressive photos!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
I can see why he was a professional photographer and i’m not!! Such amazing, provocative images. Thank you.
Black and white photography at its best !! True no doubt, as there is so much that falls into that category in your posts. These are truly brilliant and capture London at that time so well.
Wonderful photos. The picture of Hampden Crescent W2 is very evocative of Roger Mayne,s photographs in nearby Southam St W10.
Right up until the 1980’s we used to have slow and gorgeous b&w film that gave creamy, grainy, hard contrast, soft contrast, fine grain, whatever quality you wanted – AGFA did a 25 ASA. I preferred Kodak 32 – now we have photoshop and quick-fire photography. All those gorgeous films are gone. I’m glad photos from the heyday of photography as a fine craft with fine materials and lenses exist to shame the present. Maybe I am too cynical about that.
These photos are so evocative of London at its moodiest and most secretive. Right up to my 1969 arrival in London you could see traces of all this, rent unmodernised and seriously shabby huge flats in SW5 (flatshare social life was great). But on the train through the outskirts going to Sussex I used to feel there was a lot of filthy, scary stuff lining the suburban streets the line out of Victoria would pass, visible from windows as we clackety clacked along – the smell of those old trains unforgettable….but everyone seated….always.
Wonderful, inspired photos, each one a masterpiece in its own right. Valerie
Wonderful, evocative photos. But oh, I’d love to see Prevert’s words too!