Bert Hardy

Cockney Life at the Elephant & Castle

January 9, 1949

Millions Like Her, Betty Burden, A Shopgirl in Birmingham Signed in ink on recto. Artist's stamp on verso.

signed by artist

8th January 1949: The Elephant and Castle in the London Borough of Southwark, South London. (Photo Bert Hardy) A beautiful Limited Edition (ed size 300) silver gelatin fibre dark...

Gorbals Boys (1948) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print (Photo by Bert Hardy/Getty Images Archive London) Possibly Bert Hardy's most famous image. Two boys in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. The Gorbals tenements were built quickly and cheaply in the 1840s, providing housing for Glasgow's burgeoning population of industrial workers. Conditions were appalling; overcrowding was standard and sewage and water facilities inadequate. The tenements housed about 40,000 people with up to eight family members sharing a single room, 30 residents sharing a toilet and 40 sharing a tap. By the time this photograph was taken 850 tenements had been demolished since 1920. Redevelopment of the area began in the late 1950s and the tenements were replaced with a modern tower block complex in the sixties. Original Publication: Picture Post - 4499 - The Forgotten Gorbals - pub. 1948 Additional Information: Unframed Paper Size: 20 x 16'' inches / 51 x 41 cm Printed 2024 Silver Gelatin Fibre Print Limited edition issued and stamped on front by the Getty Archive London Edition size 300 only NOTE OTHER SIZES OF THIS IMAGE AVAILABLE 10 x 8'' 10 x 12'' 12 x 16'' 16 x 20'' 20 x 24'' FRAMING AVAILABLE ON REQUEST Bert Hardy Albert William Thomas Hardy (19 May 1913 – 3 July 1995) was an English documentary and press photographer known for his work published in the Picture Post magazine between 1941 and 1957. Life and work Born in Blackfriars, Bert Hardy rose from humble working class origins in Southwark, London. The eldest of seven children, he left school at age 14 to work for a chemist who also processed photos. His first big sale came in 1936 when he photographed King George V and Queen Mary in a passing carriage during the Silver Jubilee celebrations, and sold 200 small prints of his best view of the King. His first assignment, at age 23, was to photograph Hungarian actor Sakall at the Mayfair Hotel. Hardy freelanced for The Bicycle magazine, and bought his first small-format 35 mm Leica. He signed on with the General Photographic Agency as a Leica photographer, later founding his own freelance firm, Criterion. General Photographic Agency General Photographic Agency a Fleet Street, London agency, sold photos at least between 1880-1950. Picture Post and World War II In 1941, Hardy was recruited by the then editor Tom Hopkinson of the leading picture publication of the 1930s to the 1950s, Picture Post. Founded in 1938 and funded by publisher Edward Hulton, the magazine's first editor was Hungarian émigré Stefan Lorant (1901–97) assisted by Hopkinson, who took over as editor from 1940. The picture-centric, left-leaning and reasonably-priced publication was highly successful and circulation soon rose to over a million. Hardy's photographer colleagues included Felix H. Man (aka Hans Baumann...