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Chapter 9. Politics, art, and pedagogy in Edith Tudor-Hart’s photographs of children

Abstract

Edith Tudor-Hart, a photographer working in Britain from the 1930s to the 1950s, became exceptionally good at photographing children. Her final series of images, published in a classroom text called Moving and Growing (1952), were created through a collaborative method she developed by combining her teaching experience and her training as an artist with her political conviction that photography is a democratic medium. The results are dynamic photographs that capture children moving, risking and creating. Shortly after Moving and Growing was published, Tudor-Hart abandoned photography and destroyed her catalogue of negatives fearing she was about to be prosecuted as a spy. As a consequence, her work was largely forgotten, but her images and working methods deserve to be recalled and studied. In our highly visual age, Edith Tudor-Hart’s powerful images have much to say about the relationship between photography and images of childhood.

Abstract

Edith Tudor-Hart, a photographer working in Britain from the 1930s to the 1950s, became exceptionally good at photographing children. Her final series of images, published in a classroom text called Moving and Growing (1952), were created through a collaborative method she developed by combining her teaching experience and her training as an artist with her political conviction that photography is a democratic medium. The results are dynamic photographs that capture children moving, risking and creating. Shortly after Moving and Growing was published, Tudor-Hart abandoned photography and destroyed her catalogue of negatives fearing she was about to be prosecuted as a spy. As a consequence, her work was largely forgotten, but her images and working methods deserve to be recalled and studied. In our highly visual age, Edith Tudor-Hart’s powerful images have much to say about the relationship between photography and images of childhood.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of figures vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Early photobooks
  6. Chapter 1. Translating living pictures 22
  7. Chapter 2. Photographing Chinese childhood 43
  8. Chapter 3. As ‘objectively’ as possible. On truth and objectivity in photographic early-concept books 67
  9. Part 2. The impact of vanguard movements
  10. Chapter 4. Soviet socialist su(pe)rrealism for children 94
  11. Chapter 5. From Halley’s Comet to the Scout Kwapiszon 123
  12. Chapter 6. “A successful photograph is worth as much as a story” 144
  13. Part 3. Female pioneers of photography
  14. Chapter 7. From the “Children of all Lands Stories” to the “Enfants du monde” collection 170
  15. Chapter 8. In and out of focus 189
  16. Chapter 9. Politics, art, and pedagogy in Edith Tudor-Hart’s photographs of children 210
  17. Part 4. The politics of childhood
  18. Chapter 10. Portrait of the child as a socialist 232
  19. Chapter 11. “Days of Sun, Playing, and Dreams” 254
  20. Chapter 12. The mirror and multiplicity 274
  21. About the editors and contributors 297
  22. Subject index 301
  23. Name index 305
Photography in Children's Literature
This chapter is in the book Photography in Children's Literature
https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.17.09rey

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of figures vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Early photobooks
  6. Chapter 1. Translating living pictures 22
  7. Chapter 2. Photographing Chinese childhood 43
  8. Chapter 3. As ‘objectively’ as possible. On truth and objectivity in photographic early-concept books 67
  9. Part 2. The impact of vanguard movements
  10. Chapter 4. Soviet socialist su(pe)rrealism for children 94
  11. Chapter 5. From Halley’s Comet to the Scout Kwapiszon 123
  12. Chapter 6. “A successful photograph is worth as much as a story” 144
  13. Part 3. Female pioneers of photography
  14. Chapter 7. From the “Children of all Lands Stories” to the “Enfants du monde” collection 170
  15. Chapter 8. In and out of focus 189
  16. Chapter 9. Politics, art, and pedagogy in Edith Tudor-Hart’s photographs of children 210
  17. Part 4. The politics of childhood
  18. Chapter 10. Portrait of the child as a socialist 232
  19. Chapter 11. “Days of Sun, Playing, and Dreams” 254
  20. Chapter 12. The mirror and multiplicity 274
  21. About the editors and contributors 297
  22. Subject index 301
  23. Name index 305
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