Humphrey Spender
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Humphrey Spender, (April 19, 1910 – March 11, 2005), was a photographer, painter, architect, designer and mural painter. The brother of the poet Stephen Spender, and like him educated at Gresham's School, he initially studied architecture before training as a photographer. He was a famous Fleet Street photographer and worked for the magazine Picture Post under the nickname 'Lensman'.
Spender became a member of the Mass Observation movement, taking photos of daily life in working class communities. His most famous photographs are of the 'Worktown Study'. (Worktown was the Mass Observationist's codename for Bolton). Taken in a period between 1937 and 1940, his photographs cover the full range of Mass-Observation’s interests - politics and elections; religion; street scenes; industrial landscapes; the public house; market scenes; new buildings and developments; observers in action; sport and leisure time; work in the textile mills; on holiday in Blackpool; street hoardings and advertisements.
