The Erin Pearson Collection

A private collection · Brisbane

Curves
Curves
Curves
Curves
Curves
Curves

Curves

Walter Bird (London)

The Work

A study titled "Curves" — a nude figure captured in a twisting, sculptural pose, arms raised above the head, the body caught in dramatic light and shadow that emphasises line and form over detail. Characteristic of Bird's romantic, considered approach to the female figure, treating the body as a study in composition and light rather than portraiture.

Photograms of the Year was the longest-running and most prestigious photography annual of its era, published in London from 1895 to 1962 as "The Annual Review of the World's Pictorial Photographic Work." Compiled by the editors of The Photogram, the annual showcased the very best of pictorialist photography from around the world each year, reproduced in high-quality plates alongside critical commentary. Pictorialism treated the photograph as a deliberately composed, painterly work of art rather than a simple document — soft focus, dramatic light, and careful staging in service of mood and beauty over documentary accuracy.

Year
1941 (published)
Medium
Halftone plate, from Photograms of the Year 1941
Image size
160 mm x 205 mm
Framed size
415 mm x 500 mm
Catalogue
0060

Provenance

This plate comes from my own copy of Photograms of the Year 1941 — the earliest and, to me, most beautiful of a full collection of these annuals my mother gave me when I began studying photography in 1997, back when photography still meant film. Most of the annuals I owned were hardbound, but this 1941 edition was a soft-covered, aged copy, and the plates inside were extraordinary. I treasured this book for years before deciding the images were too beautiful not to be seen properly, and selected several to frame for my studio.

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Framing

Framed with UltraVue glass and 8-ply cotton rag matting, using a custom finish I developed myself: real graphite powder worked over Australian hardwood — "Tasmanian Oak," so called, though the name is a long-standing invention of the Australian timber industry rather than a genuine species — to create a soft, photographic grey that echoes the tonal quality of the plate itself.

About Walter Bird (London)

Walter Bird (1903–1969) was one of the leading figures of the London photography scene in the 1930s, a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society who trained at Richmond Art School and later in Paris. Early in his career he worked mainly on advertising commissions and portraits published in Tatler and Theatre World, but became best known for his romantic, painterly studies of the nude — considered, alongside contemporaries John Everard and Horace Roye, among the finest figure photographers of the era. In 1939 the three joined forces to establish Photo Centre Ltd., and together published the popular wartime books Eves Without Leaves and its sequels. Later in his career, Bird took on a very different role — chief photographer for J. Russell & Sons, and official photographer for the National Photographic Record, a National Portrait Gallery initiative to document Britain's important and influential citizens.