Fleet Street Photos

Examing the history of the popular press and the photographers who helped sell the papers with their images, Daily Encounters at National Portrait Gallery is a collection of Fleet Street photos from the past 80 years.

The exhibition charts the development of newspaper photography from the early days of the twentieth century when photography was still a relatively novel invention to the demise of Fleet Street itself in the 1980s. Covering all angles of the newsworthy image, the Fleet Street photos tell the narrative of the politcians, celebrities, gangsters and actors who were regularly photographed along side the natural disasters and the major events.

Looking at the photos in chronological order, it becomes apparent that the most popular icons to emerge from the Fleet Street photographers are members of the Royal Family, with politcians and sports stars following closely behind. With breaking stories of their triumphs or misbehaviours, the press photographers take up the baton themselves to get their images to the editor before anyone else, thereby guaranteeing themselves a place in the paper and in history.

Showing how the press images became some of the most socially inclusive forms of photography in the twentieth century, the Fleet Street photos exhibition counterpoints the images of celebrity and fame, with those of oridinary people, with the pictures often taken by people of their own social class. Catering for a new generation of socially literate people, the popular press took up the likes and dislikes of Britain in the 20s and 30s and championed them to the nation. With marked contrast between the press photographers and the society photographers, a bigger class distincton was made, which gave the press greater power to make his name known and for the public to see his work.

Showing until the end of October, the Fleet Street photos in Daily Encounters tell a fascinating tale of the press and our current obsession with celebrity image which developed out of the early years of press photography.

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