DOROTHY BOHM – SEEING AND FEELING
2012-07-30An undisputed doyenne of British photography, Dorothy Bohm has been taking pictures for over 70 years. She is one of the most productive and versatile photographers active today, with examples of her work held in public and private collections worldwide. She has published fourteen books and has had numerous one-woman exhibitions. At the age of 88, her enthusiasm for taking pictures continues unabated.
Bohm came to England from Lithuania in 1939 as a girl of fourteen to escape the threat of Nazism. She finished her schooling in Sussex and then studied photography at the Manchester College of Technology. She opened her own photographic studio in Manchester at the age of 21, soon making a name for herself as a portrait photographer.
Frequent visits to the Swiss Lakes soon after the war stimulated her interest in outdoor photography. Impressed by the different quality of light and encouraged by a number of well-known painters and sculptors, she soon exchanged studio portraiture for images of the human figure in its infinite diversity and in its natural environment.
In the early 1980s, encouraged by Andre Kertesz, Dorothy Bohm began experimenting with colour polaroids and found that she no longer wished to photograph in black and white. While her work continued to express her profoundly humane approach to the world, colour gave her the means to pursue her fascination with reflections and surfaces, allowing for a witty exploration of spatial ambiguity, even occasionally verging on abstraction.
Opposite – Stockholm, Sweden 1967
Exhibition runs through till September 8th, 2012
Margaret Street Gallery
63 Margaret Street
London
W1W 8SW
