Liverpool Through The Lens – Edward Chambré Hardman. 1 November 2008 – ENDS SATURDAY 31 January 2009
In association with the University, the National Trust is exhibiting 56 original Hardman prints – the first major showing of the photographer’s work in the city since 1994.
Hardman worked during the middle years of the last century – when Liverpool was still a thriving, world class port and ‘gateway to the Empire’. Working in a photographic tradition known as pictorialism, he used devices such as soft focus, manipulation and retouching to create photographic impressions or moods, rather than pure documentary records – thus giving a depth and atmospheric intensity to his images.
‘Liverpool Through the Lens’ illustrates Hardman’s work at its best, capturing moments in the busy industrial and commercial life of the city, its architectural development and transport systems, its working people and back streets, cultural leaders and theatrical idols – and its last
flourish as a major port and shipbuilding centre.