Down and out in Vienna and London: Edith Tudor-Hart photography goes on show at Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Down and out in Vienna and London: Edith Tudor-Hart photography goes on show at Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Show all 6A retrospective of one of the most iconic photographers in Britain during the 1930s and 1940s opens this Saturday 2 March at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Born in Vienna, Edith Tudor-Hart’s photographs deals with many of the major social issues of her day, including poverty, unemployment and slum housing. Her work records the politically-charged atmosphere of inter-war Vienna and Britain during the Great Slump of the 1930s. After 1945 Tudor-Hart concentrated on questions of child welfare, producing poignant and shocking imagery of children of her era.
Tudor-Hart’s life story as a photographer is tied to the great political upheavals of the twentieth century. Born Edith Suschitzky in Vienna in 1908, she grew up in radical Jewish circles in a city ravaged by the impact of the First World War. Her childhood was dominated by social issues in a culture acutely aware of the impact of the Russian Revolution.
After training as a Montessori teacher, she studied photography at the Bauhaus in Dessau and pursued a career as a photojournalist. However, her life was turned upside down in May 1933 when she was arrested while working as an agent for the Communist Party of Austria. She escaped long-term imprisonment by marrying an English doctor, Alexander Tudor-Hart, and was exiled to London shortly afterwards.
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Edith Tudor-Hart: In the Shadow of Tyranny is at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery from 2 March to 26 May.
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