Ian Berry's 1978 book sees him return to his homeland after many years abroad to both document and rediscover the English way of life
Ian Berry
"The great single picture is emotionally satisfying, whereas getting a good journalistic story is more about being a professional"
- Ian Berry
Ian Berry was born in Lancashire, England. He made his reputation in South Africa, where he worked for the Daily Mail and later for Drum magazine. He was the only photographer to document the massacre at Sharpeville in 1960, and his photographs were used in the trial to prove the victims’ innocence.
Henri Cartier-Bresson invited Ian Berry to join Magnum in 1962 when he was based in Paris. He moved to London in 1964 to become the first contract photographer for the Observer Magazine. Since then assignments have taken him around the world: he has documented Russia’s invasion of Czechoslovakia; conflicts in Israel, Ireland, Vietnam and the Congo; famine in Ethiopia; apartheid in South Africa. The major body of work produced in South Africa is represented in two of his books: Black and Whites: L’Afrique du Sud (with a foreword by the then French president François Mitterrand), and Living Apart (1996). During the last year, projects have included child slavery in Ghana and the Spanish fishing industry.
Important editorial assignments have included work for National Geographic, Fortune, Stern, Geo, national Sunday magazines, Esquire, Paris-Match and LIFE. Ian Berry has also reported on the political and social transformations in China and the former USSR.
Awards
2005 National photography magazine award for lifetime achievement in photography
1996 Made Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society
1990 Made Honorary Fellow, University of Lancashire
1981 Pix of Year, magazine news, Award from Missouri School of Journalism and National Press Photographers of America
1977 Nikon Photographer of Year Award (first ever)
1974 Awarded British Arts Council’s first major photographic bursary (led to his book, The English)
1969 Art Director’s Club of New York Award
1960 British Press Pictures, Feature Photographer of Year Award
1959 British Press Pictures, Feature Photographer of Year Award
1959 Nikon World Photo Contest Awards – 1st and 3rd
Exhibitions
2009 South Africa update in Wales
2007 Visa Pour L’Image, Perpignan – Child Slavery
2007 The Lowry Gallery– Water
2007 The Lowry Gallery – The North
2007 Guardian Gallery – A Look at Colour Magazines
2004 Living Apart at the Royal Armoury Museum, Leeds
2004 South Africa at the Brunei Gallery, London
2001 English Revisited at Focus Gallery, London
1998 Exhibition at Museum of Photography, Bradford
1997 Exhibition at Aix en Provence literary week
1996 Living Apart, Royal Photographic Society, Bath, England
1995 Main exhibition at Visa Pour L’Image, Perpignan
1986 The English, XYZ Gallery, Belgium
1986 South Africa, FNAC Gallery, Paris
1985 Contemporary British Photography, Museum of Modern Art, Paris
1984 Britain in 1984, National Museum of Photography
1983 Geographic colour prints at Olympus Galleries, Paris and Hamburg
1982 Year of India, joint exhibition at National Theatre
1979 Participated Magnum Exhibition, Tokyo
1977 Exhibition Hamburg Culture House
1976 Solo colour exhibition at Paris Photo Fair
1976 The English, Photographer’s Gallery, London
1973 Inside Whitechapel, First Photographic Exhibition at Whitechapel Art Gallery
1972 Photographers’ Gallery, London
1970 Personal Views, British Council Exhibition
Books
2008 Sold into Slavery
2008 Mar (The Sea)
2006 I Grandi Fotografi
1996 Living Apart (Phaidon) text by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
1992 Book on fishing port of Vigo
1991 Spanish book for Hologramme, Paris
1990 In Our Time: The World As Seen by Magnum Photographers
1989 Les Grands Travaux (book of modern French architecture)
1988 L’Afrique du Sud with text by Francois Mitterrand
1981 World Photography: 25 Great Photographers (by Bryn Campbell)
1978 The English (Penguin and Allen Lane)
1960 Book on black stage musical, King Kong
Films
2005 BBC profile on digital photography
1980 BBC TV series, Profile of a Photojournalist
1976 Profiled by the BBC in a TV documentary comparing the turn-of-century photographer Frank Sutcliffe with contemporary photographer
Read More
