Helen Muspratt

Helen Margaret Muspratt (13 May 1907 – 29 July 2001) was a British photographer.[1]

Helen Muspratt
Born13 May 1907 
Chennai (India) 
Died29 July 2001  (aged 94)
Brighton 
OccupationPhotographer 
Spouse(s)John Clement Dix Dunman 

Life

Born in Madras, India to British Army Lieutenant-Colonel Vivian Edward Muspratt and his wife, Lily May, née Hope.[2] She studied photography at Regent Street Polytechnic and in 1929 opened a photography studio in Swanage, Dorset. In 1932, she met Lettice Ramsey, and together they opened the Ramsey & Muspratt studio in Cambridge. In 1937, she married CPGB organiser Jack Dunman and opened a second Ramsey & Muspratt studio in Oxford.[3][4]

Helen Muspratt died on 29 July 2001 in Brighton, England.

Work

Early in her career, Muspratt pursued both portraiture (especially of children) and experimental work; her solarization studies were influenced by the American artist Man Ray. Her documentary work included travel to the Soviet Union in 1936 to photograph farmers and villagers along the Volga; upon her return, she joined the Communist Party in Britain. Commissioned by the Left Book Club in 1937, she photographed miners and unemployed laborers in the Rhondda valley in south Wales. In Oxford, portraiture was the mainstay of her commercial work until her retirement in the 1970s. In 1976, she held a retrospective exhibition of her work.[5][3] Wider recognition of her work came with the 1986-87 touring exhibition ‘Women's Photography in Britain’ and the volume The Other Observers : Women Photographers in Britain-1900 to the present;[6] in 1986, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary series on women photographers that featured Muspratt;[7] she also appeared in the BBC series Women of Our Century in 1990.[2]

The National Portrait Gallery, London holds fifteen of Muspratt's portrait photographs.[8]

Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, held an exhibition of her photographs in 2016.[9]

References
  1. Williams, Val (2 August 2001). "Helen Muspratt". The Independent. Retrieved 2020-06-21.
  2. Neale, Shirley (2009-01-08). Musgrave, Helen Margaret (1907-2001). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/76106. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  3. "Helen Muspratt: The woman who photographed the Cambridge spies". The Independent. 2016-03-11. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
  4. The Oxford premises of Ramsey & Muspratt had been a studio opened by Walter Benington on behalf of Elliott & Fry. "Walter Bennington Biography". National Portrait Gallery. Archived from the original on 22 February 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  5. Marsh, Jan (2001-08-10). "Obituary: Helen Muspratt". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
  6. Williams, Val (1986). The Other Observers : Women Photographers in Britain-1900 to the present. London: Virago. ISBN 1853814202.
  7. "Helen Muspratt: Five Women Photographers" (A Broadside Production for Channel 4 (UK) Television). Vimeo. Oct–Nov 1986.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  8. "Helen Muspratt - Person - National Portrait Gallery". Npg.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
  9. "Helen Muspratt: Photographer". Pallant House Gallery. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
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