'I always wanted to draw and paint. I had no literary ambition: I aspired to be a Michael Angelo, not a Shakespear [sic]. But I could not draw well enough to satisfy myself; and the instruction I could get was worse than useless. So when dry plates and push buttons came into the market I bought a box camera and began pushing the button. It was in 1898'
[George Bernard Shaw, A Concise History of Photography by Helmut Gernsheim, p 187.]
Shaw is of course best known as a writer and critic but he was also a proficient and active amateur photographer who believed that a photograph should be treated as a work of art. The Man & Cameraman project has catalogued, conserved and digitised his photographic collection: it has also sought to expose the man behind the lens and ask what can we learn about Shaw when looking at these images. It is remarkable to think that the photograph captures exactly what Shaw was seeing at any given moment and so we can literally experience the space in which he was. They can also reveal his aesthetic and thus his inner self (do hundreds of self-portraits point to him re-using an always accessible subject to perfect his craft or to a giant egotism for example!)
The collection dates from the 1860s-1950 and contains 20,000 images of Shaw, his circle, family and friends, productions, travels, homes and so on. A range of styles and processes reveals the scope of photography in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many subjects, from interior design and fashion to architecture and our changing built environment, can be researched through the prints.
Here we showcase a selection of images that take us into Shaw's world, thereby giving us a tangible sense of the man and his passions.
All images are by GB Shaw, unless it says otherwise. Click on a thumbnail for the larger version, or on the photograph number for the catalogue entry (if applicable).
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Further information
For previous exhibitions see Snapshots from Man & Cameraman| and the Archives Hub|. For a talk and presentation on the project see: talk| (pdf) and presentation| (pdf).
Our blog| features updates about the project and features on the collection.
George Bernard Shaw at LSE Archives| provides details of all the Shaw materials at LSE.
Man and Cameraman is generously funded by the LSE Centennial Fund|.
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No part of this exhibition may be reproduced without permission from LSE: all text by Karyn Stuckey, Archivist © LSE. Digital images © LSE. GB Shaw Estate © GB Shaw, reproduced by kind permission of the Society of Authors, on behalf of the Bernard Shaw estate. Harley Granville-Barker Estate © Harley Granville-Barker, reproduced with permission from The Society of Authors.