“For me, photographing animals gives great satisfaction and is never dull. There is much to learn about them too. In any case, they never complain about their portraits!”
Wolfgang Suschitzky, “Animal Photography” in Kingdom of the Beasts, 1956
The Photography Sales Gallery at the Centre for British Photography presents a rare opportunity to acquire examples of Suschitzky's acclaimed animal photographs.
Zoology was the first love of the great photographer and cinematographer, Wolfgang Suschitzky. His first photographs of animals date from before the Second World War when he was an assistant cameraman on a series of zoo films. He recalled later that the zoo keepers would enter the enclosures with him but it did not always go to plan: "I had to grab the camera and run for it when a kangaroo attacked me at Whipsnade, and I only just made the fence. But on the whole, the kind of animal photography which I do is fairly peaceful work!
Whilst Suschitzky's scenes of the streets of mid twentieth century London are today his best-known pictures, it was his photographs of animals that established his reputation. They were the subject of features and reproduction in a range of magazines, from Lilliput and Picture Post to Animal and Zoo magazine, and also the subject of his first major books. Twenty-five of his animal photographs appeared in Lorna Lewis's The Children's Zoo and this was followed by Suschitzy's Photographing Animals (1941) with 44 photographs and Julian Huxley and Suschitzky's Kingdom of the Beasts (1956), with 159 of his animal photographs.
Kingdom of the Beasts contains an introductory text by Julian Huxley, the celebrated secretary of the Zoological Society and an essay on animal photography by Suschitzky. The book explains:
"Suschitzky has been interested in animals from his early childhood, and especially in the individual nature of each creature. In his photography - now justly famous - he has always sought to catch the essential characteristic of each animal, by choosing a particular pose or expression. The result is a most exciting and unique collection of animal character studies. Often there may be little more than a head in the picture, bu1t the impression of the animal that is given conveys more than the usual 'scientific' photograph." Kingdom of the Beasts, 1956.
Frequently Suschitzky favours the close-up and these images often appear to possess a penetrating psychological insight. Often, too, he directs attention to the relationship between the protagonists. Without succumbing to anthropomorphism, under Suschitzky's respectful gaze, these animals are presented as our counterparts rather than inferiors, and as individuals rather than types.
The book was lavishly illustrated but as the photographs in this exhibition reveal, for every reproduced image there were just as successful images which did not make the final edit. Many of these were then mounted by Suschitzky, often on coloured paper, and cropped using extended verticals and horizontals.
In the 1960s and 1970s, fortunate recipients would receive these mounted images as hand-made New Year's cards, and now half a century later, we are delighted to present this opportunity for collectors to acquire a wonderful selection of mounted photographs which were never used and which were retained by Suschitzky.
All photographs come from the Estate of Wolfgang Suschitzky
The photographs are undated but were taken during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and printed in the 1960s and 1970s.
The sequencing follows that of the original publication of Kingdom of the Beasts.
Unless shown otherwise, all photographs are on their original red card mounts.
Each photograph is approximately 9.5 x 19.5 cms
Each mount size is approximately 10.5 x 21.5 cms
There is just one copy of each work for sale. Each work is sold in a conservation acid-free window mount.
Each work is priced at £450.
All works are offered subject to availability and price revision.