Magnum Photos Event

Exhibition 

David Hurn: The 60s 

Exhibition 
by David Hurn 

When:

Nov 18 - Jan 29 2016

Where:

Magnum Print Room

63 Gee Street

London, EC1V 3RS

UK

The first exhibition to focus on <a href='http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZZSS' target='_blank'>David Hurn’s</a> photographs from the 1960s will open at Magnum Print Room, London in November (open Wednesday to Friday from 11:30-4:00). The exhibition will reflect the range of Hurn’s diverse output in just one decade – from celebrity portraits to the British at the seaside, the anti-Vietnam war London protests of 1968 to street scenes of Manhattan.

‘Life as it unfolds in front of the camera is full of so much complexity, wonder and surprise that I find it unnecessary to create new realities. There is more pleasure, for me, in things as-they-are.’
David Hurn

Best-known for his portraits of icons such as Sean Connery from With Russia with Love and Jane Fonda in Barbarella, Hurn’s work in the 1960s provides a chronicle of the decade. Pivotal historical moments such as the funeral of Winston Churchill in 1965 are juxtaposed with scenes of every day life of all sides of the social spectrum – from crowds at the famous Hammersmith Palais dancehall to the debutantes at Queen Charlotte’s ball and the counterculture vitality of the Isle of Wight festival in 1969.

A self-taught photographer, David Hurn (b.1934) began his career in 1955 as an assistant at the Reflex Agency. He gained his early reputation through his reportage of the 1956 Hungarian revolution and became a full member of Magnum Photos in 1967. In 1973 he set up the influential School of Documentary Photography in Newport, Wales and remained director until 1989. In 1997 he collaborated with Professor Bill Jay on the landmark book On Being a Photographer. Hurn’s self-initiated book Wales: Land of My Father most reflects his style and creative impetus, drawing upon observations of the changes taking place in Wales from 1970 until the book’s publication by Thames & Hudson thirty years later in 2000. His work is held in major collections including British Council, London; ICP, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Bibliothèque nationale de France and National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, amongst others. David Hurn continues to live in, and work from, his home in Tintern, Wales.

The exhibition coincides with the release of a new hardback book <a href='http://www.magnumphotos.com/Package/2K1HRGBQL4VD' target='_blank'>The 1960s: Photographed by David Hurn</a>, including an introduction by Peter Doggett, published by Reel Art Press, £29.