Art / Herbert Shergold
Do you recognise these photos from the 50s and 60s?
A photography festival is hoping to identify sitters who posed for a Bristol photographer in the 1950s and 1960s.
Featured at the Bristol Photo Festival from Wednesday, the pictures depict Herbert Shergold’s use of glass negatives that allowed him to retouch and mask imperfections by hand.
The exhibition curated by Dutch photo historian Hedy van Erp will run at The Launderette on Cheltenham Road till November 17.
Festival organisers, Alejandro Acin and Ben Thomas shared the vague details they know about the discovery of the photographs: “After Shergold’s death, his images largely disappeared from view, falling into the possession of private collectors in the U.S., The Netherlands, as well as Bristol.
“From the latter collection, Hedy van Erp has curated the first known exhibition of Shergold’s work.
“This exhibition takes place close to the site of his original studio and is supported by Marcel Brent (Vintage Photographs) and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.”
Some of the sitters the festival is trying to recognise are here:
Shergold was born in Bristol in 1906 and he became a photographer after the second world war
Children whom Shergold photographed would be in their 60s and 70s now
Shergold used glamorous lighting and studio props to mimic Hollywood photography styles
Before opening a photography studio, Shergold run a tobacco and confectionery in Cotham Hill
The photographer’s name appears as a sculptor in early exhibition catalogues of the Royal West of England Academy
Shergold was known to give residents a moment of glamour at his studio against the backdrop of a post-war Britain
Shergold shunned the use of celluloid negatives and stuck to using glass negatives for his photographs
His work was first published in the Bath Chronicle in 1950
All photos: Vintage Photographs
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