Contact: George Rodger at the IWM North
I had some spare time today, so I nipped over to the Imperial War Museum North in Salford Quays to catch the penultimate day of the George Rodger Exhibiton. What an amazing exhibition. and what lengths the war photographers of the time had to go through? Truly fantastic work, but as its last day is tomorrow, you'll be hard pushed to catch it.
"Born in Hale, Cheshire, George Rodger (1908 – 1995) was a largely self-taught and uniquely gifted photographer and pioneering photojournalist who never lost his concern and sympathy for the victims of conflict. As a photographer for Life Magazine during the Second World War, George Rodger travelled to most major war zones, photographing what he saw for a distant audience in America. Starting in wartime London, George Rodger’s photographs record his personal journey and growing horror of war as much as the course of the war itself. After his experiences, especially at Belsen concentration camp, George Rodger sought to abandon war photography. However he could not escape the conflicts of the post war era entirely. His coverage of Palestinian refugees and the Mau Mau in Kenya is as poignant and powerful as that of the London Blitz. Contact reveals how the challenges and changing nature of photojournalism in wartime shaped George Rodger’s work and experience. It examines his lasting legacy both as a photographer and as co-founder, together with Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and David (Chim) Seymour, of the legendary Magnum photographic cooperative agency 60 years ago. "