Description

Ian Berry began documenting his home country of England after a decade of travelling and living in Africa and Paris. He received a commission from the Whitechapel Gallery in 1972 to photograph the East End, where he captured the unique character and diversity of its residents.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about non-verbal communication is that it almost always is involuntary

Ian Berry
© Ian Berry | Magnum Photos

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 political and social transformation in China and the former USSR.

© Ian Berry | Magnum Photos

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