Canalblog
Editer l'article Suivre ce blog Administration + Créer mon blog
Publicité
Eloge de l'Art par Alain Truong
18 avril 2009

'Elsbeth Juda (Jay) Photographs 1940-1965' @ L’Equipment Des Arts, London

1

Elsbeth Juda, ‘Milling Around Lancashire’ Barbara Goalen, 1952

Elsbeth Juda (always known professionally as Jay) is 97 years old. For over thirty years spanning WWII right through to the early 1970s she took spectacular photographs of contemporary Britain. The vehicle for almost all her output was the remarkable magazine set up in 1940 by her husband, Hans Juda, to promote British (in all its aspects) overseas. Far from being the dry trade magazine its title might suggest, “The Ambassador, The British Export Magazine” was full of articles by top writers of the day – accompanied by Jay’s ground-breaking pictures. Fashion, textiles, the arts, society – all were brilliantly depicted. At its height, The Ambassador had a certified circulation in ninety countries – an achievement most publications today would give their eye teeth for!

2

Elsbeth Juda, ‘Milling Around Lancashire’ Barbara Goalen, 1952

Now, L’Equipment des Arts is holding a long overdue exhibition of Elsbeth’s work from this period – a project which she herself has been fully involved at every stage. Negatives have been loaned by the V&A and National Portrait Gallery to produce 100 historic prints, many of which have never been shown before. These include a unique record of Graham Sutherland’s ill-fated portrait of Winston Churchill commissioned by the House of Commons to celebrate his 80th birthday but subsequently destroyed by his wife, who hated it. Also featured is the dramatic use of a model swathed in fabric and photographed in a Lancashire mill to promote the British textile industry – Jay used locations to provide unexpected theatrical backdrops and she took full advantage of the new age of jet to travel worldwide for fashion assignments.

3

Elsbeth Juda, ‘Milling Around Lancashire’ Barbara Goalen, 1952

Henry Moore, Lynn Chadwick and Peter Blake (among many leading artists of the day) are all recorded for posterity. So are the era’s leading models including Barbara Goalen, Fiona Campbell-Walter, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, Shelagh Wilson and Marla Scarafia, while headline personalities of the time such as Margot Fonteyn, Richard Burton and Peter Ustinov and friends like Mark Boxer (whose first job was with The Ambassador) and Madge Garland are affectionately portrayed.

4

Elsbeth Juda, ‘Milling Around Lancashire’ Barbara Goalen, 1952

Elsbeth’s photographs display wit and a wild humour – but, more importantly reveal a creativity that pushed the perceived boundaries of fashion photography at the time. Her images are poignant, reflect a bygone era and are especially relevant to today – as huge sectors of British manufacturing and export disappear.

5 

Elsbeth Juda, Elsbeth Juda and the Old Lion ‘Churchill Lighting Cigar’, 1954

Elsbeth Juda was born in Darmstadt, Germany, 2nd May 1911. In 1931 she married Hans Juda and in 1933 they moved to London. Elsbeth studied photography under Lucia Moholy formerly of the Bauhaus and started her long career in a commercial studio as “dark room boy”. In 1940, Hans became founding publisher and editor of The Ambassador, The British Export Magazine. Elsbeth (known professionally as Jay) would later join the magazine as associate editor and photographer.
With the exception of Churchill, the photographs in this exhibition were taken by Elsbeth for The Ambassador. As the magazine said itself of this remarkable photographer in its special Coronation Issue in 1953: “Here is the least photographed and the most photographing member of the Ambassador Organization. Indeed the words Photos by Jay are not missing from many of our illustrated pages, but nobody should be allowed to imagine that her resources end here. Jay is also the most fashion-wise of fashion editors and when it comes to hustling models in and out of areoplanes, anywhere from the Myer emporium in Melbourne to little shop in the Brazilian jungle; Jay is the girl to do it. Pages 93 to 108 will give new readers a vague idea about the exasperating activity of our roving colleague.”

6

Elsbeth Juda, Henry Moore with ‘King and Queen’, 1953

The Ambassador. Influential from its inception and endorsed throughout its 30 years history by the Government (which ensured a continual supply of paper during the War), The Ambassador , The British Export Magazine became the voice of British manufacturing for export at a time when the nation’s trade struggled to emerge after 1945.
It was Hans Juda who coined “Export or Die” as the motto for The Ambassador. Later as the magazine became an essential marketing and press journal for a Britain desperate to reestablish itself as a global exporter, the phrase would become a mantra for the national manufacturing industry. Throughout their work at magazine during the 1940's 50's and 60's, Elsbeth and Hans became two of the UK's greatest champions for export, constantly promoting every facet of British manufacturing, culture and the arts and, in the process, coming into close contact with a host of distinguished artists writers, designers and photographers. Together they built an impressive collection of contemporary art, many of the artists they collected already close friends. But it is a much wider circle of friends which would allow Jay to capture every facets of a reemerging post-war Britain through the lens of her camera.
Subscribers in ninety countries around the world and a certified circulation, guaranteed The Ambassador’s place as one of the world’s leading export journals The magazine was later bought by Thompson Publication with Hans Juda joining the board in 1961 as part of the deal.

Elsbeth Juda (Jay) Photographs 1940-1965. 16 April – 8 May 2009. L’Equipement des Arts, 19 New Quebec Street, London W1.  11am to 7pm daily www.lequipement.com

Publicité
Commentaires
Publicité
Archives
Derniers commentaires
Eloge de l'Art par Alain Truong
Publicité