Interpreting Bert Hardy's photographic collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario

This subject of this thesis is a collection of Bert Hardy photographs donated to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in 2007. Hardy (1913-1995), worked as a photojournalist for Picture Post from 1940 - 1957 during which time he covered many aspects of British life after World War II. Hardy’s contribution to British visual culture is traced in three chapters beginning with a literature survey that covers the context of his work in post-war British society. The second chapter gives a full description of the collection and further analyzes the style of Hardy’s photographs. The third chapter examines the history Picture Post and the context in which its editors worked. Looking at the the relationship between photographers and editors in the picture press, it examines how Stefan Lorant and Tom Hopkinson edited and captioned Bert Hardy’s photographs for use in the Picture Post.