Izis 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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This is the London I remember when I moved from the countryside as a very young child: the still-recovering-from-war city of the early 1950s. Very evocative images.
Superb, superb photographs
I love the boy in the graveyard. And the roundabout.
thanks
Izis is great and your blog too. Friendly
Wonderful! You may find many of these pictures in the book Gala Day London, published by Harvill Press in 1953, together with original texts directly related to the photographs contributed by writers, poets and artists of the day (among them John Betjeman, T. S. Eliot, Henry Green, Laurie Lee, Anthony Powell, Stephen Spender and Angus Wilson). Printed in Switzerland, with an extraordinary blackness of tone.
Wonderful, evocative photos, which show me the London I knew as a child. Valerie
These photos are exquisite. I should be getting on with my day – they made me press the pause button and take a peek. Thank you
Today’s post is absolutely stunning. I am in awe of those pictures, especially the Greengrocer one and the one of the Greenwich Riverfront…which I think is now The Cutty Sark Tavern a few minutes away from the Trafalgar Tavern.
What do you think?
Wonderful images of a London now unfortunately long gone. It fills me with great sadness when I think of how things were and how London is now.
Fantastic Photos!
Beautiful!
A beautiful kaleidoscope of time typical scenes from a significant period. Very impressive and outstanding photographs!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
Stunning photographs.
We love your blog.
Outstanding and inspirational photographs of real historical importance. Interesting that he seems to have favoured a portrait frame over landscape.
“Braithwaite Arches” a very sad photograph,Excellent photographs all of them.liked the B&W.
Wonderful pictures! I think the Hampden Crescent photo pre-dates the great Roger Mayne’s work in the same dirty streets.
WOW these are real gems , taken by an artist, a poetic and vivid vision as you say G.A ,poetic work.
Stunning and complete works each one , so special.
Thank you for sharing pure treasure that truelly changes and uplifts ones spirit.
Fascinating to see how addresses in West London were once as working class as the East End. I just about remember Putney, Fulham and Chelsea looking like that – but not any longer!
These photos catch the atmosphere of postwar London just as I imagine it: Surviving war and carrying on, but so shabby and worn down…
We bought our first dog from Club Row (Pluto) from the back of a trailer fella said he was a Fox Terrier nice and small a few months later we had a half Alsation lump !! Loved him all the same lasted till 17 bless him…
Bidermanas’s portraits of French Resistance fighters are exhbited in the Caen Memorial in Normandy. They are large black and white prints that are striking, moving, and memorable. This entry has reminded me to search for a collection of the photos in book form. The London photos are grand, too.
The photos of some places I recognize have incorrect captions (or Izis and/or his publisher got ir wrong….
“In Pennyfields, Limehouse” is the corner of Emmett St and Westferry Rd, looking north. A couple of hundred yards from Pennyfields, and now buried under Westferry Circus.
“Ties on sale in Ming St, Limehouse”. The shop was Grant’s Meanswear in West India Dock Rd, opposite West India House.
“At Club Row animal market, Spitalfields”. It is what we called Club Row Market, but Club Row is in Shoreditch, not Spitalfields. And this particular photo was taken on Bethnal Green Rd.
The photograph of the young Boy looking out of the first floor window at a flower seller is myself taken at 28 Palace Street Victoria SW1 I would have been 8 or 9 and the Houses backed on to Watneys Stag Brewery where my Father was a Brewer
These fine Georgian Buildings are sadly no longer standing as with Watneys Brewery
Great Photographs and bringing back great memories
The Name John Cranfield belongs in the same sentence as William Whiffen,LEDGENDS.!
Beautiful, thank you