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

Early life and education

Born in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, India, to British Army Lieutenant-Colonel Vivian Edward Muspratt and his wife, Lily May, née Hope. She studied photography at

Regent Street Polytechnic The University of Westminster is a public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first polytechnic to open in London. The Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in Aug ...

Photography career

Muspratt opened a photography studio in Swanage, Dorset in 1929. In 1932, she met

Lettice Ramsey Lettice Ramsey (2 August 1898 – 12 July 1985) was a British photographer. Life Lettice Cautley Ramsey (née Baker) was born on 2 August 1898 in Guildford, Surrey, England. Her father Cecil was a surveyor and her mother Frances (née Davies- ...

, and together they opened the Ramsey & Muspratt studio in Cambridge. Early in her career, Muspratt pursued both portraiture (especially of children) and experimental work; her

solarization The Sabatier effect, also known as pseudo-solarization (or pseudo-solarisation) and erroneously referred to as the Sabattier effect, is a phenomenon in photography in which the image recorded on a negative or on a photographic print is wholly o ...

studies were influenced by the American artist

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...

. 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 The Left Book Club was a publishing group that exerted a strong left-wing influence in Great Britain from 1936 to 1948. Pioneered by Victor Gollancz, it offered a monthly book choice, for sale to members only, as well as a newsletter that acqui ...

in 1937, she photographed miners and unemployed labourers in the

Rhondda valley Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley ...

in south Wales. In 1937, she opened a second Ramsey & Muspratt studio in Cornmarket Street, Oxford. The Oxford premises of Ramsey & Muspratt had been a studio opened by

Walter Benington Walter Benington (1872–1936) was a British photographer. Working in the Victorian era and the first half of the twentieth century, his important contribution to early twentieth century photography has been more fully recognised in the doctoral t ...

on behalf of Elliott & Fry. 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. Wider recognition 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''; in 1986, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary series on women photographers that featured Muspratt; she also appeared in the BBC series ''Women of Our Century'' in 1990.

Personal life

In 1937, she married

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

organiser Jack Dunman.

Death

Muspratt died on 29 July 2001 in Brighton, England.

Collections

Muspratt's work is held in the following permanent collection: * National Portrait Gallery, London holds fifteen of Muspratt's portrait photographs

Exhibitions

Pallant House Gallery Pallant House Gallery is an art gallery in Chichester, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th-century British art in the world. History The Gallery's collection is founded on works left to the city of Chichester by ...

, Chichester, 2016 *

Bodleian Libraries The Bodleian Libraries are a collection of 28 libraries that serve the University of Oxford in England, including the Bodleian Library itself, as well as many other (but not all) central and faculty libraries. As of the 2016–17 year, the librari ...

, Oxford, 2020, to mark the donation of Muspratt's archive to the Libraries

References

External links

*https://www.helenmuspratt-photographer.com * * *
Ramsey & Muspratt Gallery
at Peter Lofts, successor to Ramsey & Muspratt in Post Office Terrace, Cambridge (1980). {{DEFAULTSORT:Muspratt, Helen 1907 births 2001 deaths 20th-century British photographers English women photographers People from Chennai Alumni of the University of Westminster Photographers from Dorset 20th-century women photographers Communist Party of Great Britain members 20th-century English women 20th-century English people