Humphrey Spender

Glasgow Shipyard

About this artwork

Humphrey Spender was sent to Glasgow in 1939 to photograph a story for Picture Post magazine. It formed one of a series of articles concentrating on life in Britain’s industrial cities. His imagery, shot with an unobtrusive 35mm camera, captured various aspects of Glasgow life and continued his anthropological interest by recording everyday activities from across the social spectrum. Despite reporting high unemployment in the ship-building industry and a chronic housing shortage, the tone of the Picture Post article remained positive. There was 'no friendlier city in Britain', it concluded. However, as Spender later noted, Picture Post’s reasons for commissioning the story were driven by the desire to increase its readership in Scotland.

Updated before 2020

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Humphrey Spender

Humphrey Spender