John Topham
British documentary photographer (1908–1992)
John Topham (1908–1992) was an English social documentary photographer.2
From Wikipedia’s article on John Topham (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born 1908, died 1973.1
About
He worked steadily from 1927 to 1973, documenting the "ordinary way of life of ordinary people...the little things of life – the way it really was." He is particularly noted for his photographs taken during the World War II era – with some appearing in Life magazine and one on display in the Imperial War Museum He amassed 121,228 negatives including 20,000 glass negatives of his earliest work.
The TopFoto collection in Edenbridge, Kent, holds about 122,000 of his pictures, including 20,000 glass negatives. Topham worked closely with a Kentish Times photographer, Tom Fassam. Many of his prints of agricultural and rural interest are also on permanent loan to the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading, courtesy of the TopFoto Archive.
From Wikipedia’s article on John Topham, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Career
Occupation: photographer, war photographer.4
- Date not recordedFounded TopFoto3
John Topham began his working life as a policeman in the East End of London in the 1920s, where he carried a camera and made photographs of daily life in Kent, especially around the Sidcup area. A photograph of Mary Smith, a knocker-up, was his first published photograph. He sold it for five pounds, a week's wages, to the Daily Mirror newspaper, and decided to become a freelance photographer.
From Wikipedia’s article on John Topham (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Personal life
- CitizenshipUnited Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland5
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataJohn Topham on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaJohn Topham on Wikipedia
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