Post-war Liverpool was a place of austerity as Henri Cartier-Bresson’s
photographs from his 1962 visit to the city attest. As a result of
over sixty air-raids during the Blitz much of the city needed rebuilding
after the war. Stewart Bale’s panoramic views made for the War Department
display the extent of the devastation.
The city quickly got back to work however, delivery vans like those
depicted by Bale being a common sight, and there was optimism for
the future: looking out from the port, especially towards America.
The Bale family originally came to Liverpool from Australia in the
early years of the twentieth century. The firm’s photographs of cruise
ships built by Cunard capture the glamour of ocean liner travel and
the possibilities of a fresh start that immigration permitted.
Stewart Bale
Double Decker Bus at Edge Lane Depot 1946
© National Museums Liverpool, Merseyside Maritime Museum
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Stewart Bale
Caronia (undated)
© University of Liverpool Library
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Irish-born photographer Edward Chambré-Hardman, who ran a portrait
studio on Rodney Street, pictures a city re-inventing itself in his
personal work. His pictorialist style lends Liverpool a poetic grandeur
in images such as Mount Street Snow Scene 1965 or Searchlight
on Anglican Cathedral 1951, where an anti-aircraft spotlight
is seen illuminating the Cathedral during the Festival of Britain.
The importance of the post-war emigrant community for reviving culture
in Liverpool is highlighted by Gordon Fazakerley, who was an art student
in the city in the mid 1950s. His own journey from Liverpool to first
the ICA in London, and then on to the Scandinavian branch of the Situationist
International demonstrates how far Liverpool travelled outwards both
intellectually and literally.
Edward Chambré-Hardman
Mersey Tunnel Interior (undated)
© The National Trust, Edward Chambré-Hardman Collection
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Henri Cartier-Bresson
Liverpool 1962
© Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos
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