{{Short description|British photojournalist (1930–2021)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}} '''Grace Robertson''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|OBE|size=100%}} (13 July 1930<ref name="Debretts">[http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/r/7520/Grace+ROBERTSON.aspx Ms Grace Robertson, OBE], Debretts. Retrieved 16 June 2013.</ref> – 11 January 2021<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000rcch Matthew Bannister on record producer Phil Spector, photographer Grace Robertson and race walker Paul Nihill.], bbc.co.uk, 22 January 2021</ref>) was a British photographer who worked as a photojournalist, and published in ''Picture Post'' and ''Life''.<ref>{{cite news|first=Andrew |last=Farrell|date=11 April 2019|access-date=15 January 2021|title=IN PICTURES: Grace Robertson, a trailblazer for female photography|url=https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/uk-world/868895/in-pictures-grace-robertson-a-trailblazer-for-female-photography/|newspaper=The Courier (Dundee)}}</ref> Her photographic series, including "Mother's Day Off" (1954) and "Childbirth" (1955), mainly recorded ordinary women in postwar Britain.
Robertson's work is held in the collections of the National Galleries of Scotland,<ref name="nationalgalleries">{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2021|title=Grace Robertson|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/grace-robertson|website=www.nationalgalleries.org}}</ref> Science Museum Group,<ref name="sciencemuseumgroup">{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2021|title=Grace Robertson|url=https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp134726/grace-robertson|website=sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk}}</ref> Tate<ref name="tate">{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2021|title=Grace Robertson|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/grace-robertson-10416|website=Tate}}</ref> and Victoria and Albert Museum.<ref name="vam">{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2021|title=Search the Collections|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/name/grace-robertson/A10305/|website=collections.vam.ac.uk}}</ref>
==Early life== Robertson was born in Manchester, England, in 1930, to the journalist and broadcaster Fyfe Robertson and his wife Elizabeth (Betty; née Muir).<ref name="Guardian_O'Hagan">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/13/grace-robertson-pioneering-photographer-with-a-gentle-eye-dies-at-90|title=Grace Robertson, pioneering photographer with a gentle eye, dies at 90|first=Sean|last=O'Hagan|work=The Guardian|date=13 January 2021|access-date=13 January 2021}}</ref><ref name=ODNB_Baker>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Anne Pimlott |last=Baker |title=Robertson, Fyfe [''formerly'' James] |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=23 September 2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/49502}}</ref> Both her parents were born in Scotland, and Robertson described herself as Scottish in a 2010 interview with ''The Scotsman''.<ref name=Scotsman_2010 /> After leaving school at 16 she looked after her mother, who had rheumatoid arthritis.<ref name=Scotsman_2010 /><ref name="Murphy">{{cite news | last = Murphy | first = Anna | title = Grace Robertson, interview with the 1950s photojournalist | newspaper = The Daily Telegraph | date =9 August 2010 | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/7918495/Grace-Robertson-interview-with-the-1950s-photojournalist.html | access-date = 17 March 2016}}</ref> She became interested in photography in 1948 and, in 1949, her father gave her a Leica camera.<ref name="Guardian_O'Hagan" /><ref name=Scotsman_2010 /><ref name="Murphy" />
==Career== In 1951 Robertson had a photo-essay about her younger sister doing her homework published in ''Picture Post'',<ref name="Guardian_O'Hagan" /><ref name="Murphy" /> where her father worked.<ref name=ODNB_Baker /> Another early success was on Chinese artists.<ref name=Scotsman_2010 /> Some of her early submissions used the male pseudonym "Dick Muir", ( a name made up of an old boyfriends first name and her mothers maiden name) to avoid revealing she was a woman, Her first commission for ''Picture Post'' was in Snowdonia, which resulted in "Sheep Shearing in Wales" (1951).<ref name=Hyman_profile>{{cite web |url=http://www.britishphotography.org/artists/19156/statement/grace-robertson |title=Grace Robertson: Artist Profile |publisher=Hyman Collection |access-date=14 January 2021 }}</ref> In 1952, she photographed the Bluebell Girls in Italy,<ref name=Hyman_profile /> and also published "Tate Gallery" (1952).<ref name="Guardian_O'Hagan" />
At the date she was working, most photojournalists were men, and she was often assigned more feminine stories.<ref name=Oxford_Hopkinson>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Amanda |last=Hopkinson |author-link=Amanda Hopkinson|title=Robertson, Grace (b. 1930), British photographer |editor=Robin Lenman, Angela Nicholson |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to the Photograph |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |orig-date=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-172756-6 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662716.001.0001}}</ref> Working as a freelancer throughout her career, her best-known series, "Mother's Day Off", documented working-class women from Bermondsey in London, enjoying a day out in Margate, and was published in ''Picture Post'' in 1954. The middle-aged to elderly subjects are depicted dancing, drinking and on a fairground ride. She was commissioned to shoot a similar series featuring women from Clapham for ''Life'' magazine in 1956.<ref name="Guardian_O'Hagan" /><ref name=Scotsman_2010 /><ref name=Hyman_profile /> ''The Scotsman'' describes both these sets of photographs as "perfectly composed, artifice-free examples of classic reportage".<ref name=Scotsman_2010 /> Her series "Childbirth", published in ''Picture Post'' in 1955, included photographs of a woman in labour and delivery, considered explicit at the time, and were among the earliest such images to appear in a magazine.<ref name="Guardian_O'Hagan" /><ref name=Hyman_profile />
Around this time, ''Life'' magazine offered her a staff job in the United States, but Robertson, recently married to Thurston Hopkins famously said she "chose life over life" and remained freelance in the UK.<ref name=Scotsman_2010 /> After the failure of the ''Picture Post'' in 1957, she continued to work as a freelance photographer and photojournalist for ''Life'' and other publications, and also took advertising photographs.
After having children, she trained and worked as a primary school teacher from 1966 to 1978, while continuing to take photographs.<ref name=Scotsman_2010>{{cite news |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/interview-grace-robertson-photojournalist-2442540 |title=Interview: Grace Robertson, photojournalist |newspaper=The Scotsman |date=11 May 2010 |access-date=14 January 2021}}</ref><ref name=Hyman_profile /><ref name=Oxford_Hopkinson /><ref name=Hyman_timeline>{{cite web |url=http://www.britishphotography.org/artists/19156/biography/grace-robertson|title=Grace Robertson: Biography |publisher=Hyman Collection |access-date=14 January 2021}}</ref> After retiring from teaching, she started to paint during the 1980s.<ref name=Oxford_Hopkinson />
In 1986, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary about Robertson, and her work was included in an exhibition at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford; several other exhibitions in the UK and the United States followed. In 1989, she published an autobiographical monograph, entitled ''Grace Robertson – Photojournalist of the 50s''.<ref name="Indie-mag">{{cite magazine |last1=Hopkinson |first1=Tom |title=Caught by Grace |magazine=The Independent Magazine |date=28 Oct 1989}}</ref> In 1992, the BBC commissioned a programme from her about ninety year olds.<ref name=Hyman_profile /><ref name=Hyman_timeline /> She also gave lectures on women photographers.<ref name=Hyman_profile /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/grace-robertson |title=Grace Robertson |publisher=National Galleries Scotland |access-date=14 January 2021 }}</ref>
Sean O'Hagan, writing in ''The Guardian'', characterises Robertson's work as recording ordinary women in postwar Britain, and describes her as a "proto-feminist".<ref name="Guardian_O'Hagan" /> Tirza Latimer and Harriet Riches consider her work to be "limited to a focus on women's interests."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Tirza |last=Latimer |author2=Harriet Riches |title=Women and photography |encyclopedia=Grove Art Online |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=11 February 2013 |orig-date=2006 |doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T2022250}}</ref>
==Awards and honours== Robertson was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society in 1995<ref>{{cite web|access-date=13 January 2021|title=Honorary Fellowship|url=https://rps.org/about/awards/history-and-recipients/honorary-fellowship/|website=Royal Photographic Society}}</ref> and appointed an OBE in 1999.<ref name="Debretts" /><ref name=Hyman_timeline /> She received honorary degrees from the University of Brighton (1995) and Brunel University (2007).<ref name=Hyman_timeline />
==Personal life== Robertson, who stood 6 ft 2in in her bare feet,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/grace-robertson-obituary-q9sfn607c|title=Grace Robertson obituary|newspaper=The Times|date=5 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.bl.uk/sound-and-vision/2021/01/grace-robertson-a-pioneer-of-womens-documentary-photography.html#:~:text=Grace%2C%20then%20aged%2063%2C%20agreed,was%20six%20feet%20two%20inches)|title = Grace Robertson, a pioneer of women's documentary photography|website=Sound and vision blog|publisher=British Library|date=15 January 2021}}</ref> married in 1955 the ''Picture Post'' photographer Thurston Hopkins.<ref name="Guardian_O'Hagan" /><ref name="Murphy" /> They had two children.<ref name=Guardian_Hopkinson>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/30/thurston-hopkins |first=Amanda |last=Hopkinson |author2=David Mitchell |title=Thurston Hopkins obituary |newspaper=The Guardian |date=30 October 2014 |access-date=14 January 2021}}</ref> In the 1980s, on Thurston Hopkins' retirement, the couple moved to Seaford in East Sussex, where they remained until their deaths in 2014 at the age of 101<ref name=Guardian_Hopkinson /> and 2021 age 90 respectively.
Robertson died on 11 January 2021, aged 90.<ref name="Guardian_O'Hagan" />
==Publications== ===Books of work by Robertson=== *{{cite book |title=Grace Robertson: Photojournalist of the 50s |last=Robertson |first=Grace |year=1989 |publisher=Virago |location= London |isbn= 1-85381-089-4 }} *{{cite book|last1=Robertson|first1=Grace|title=Grace Robertson: A Sympathetic Eye|year=2002|publisher=University of Brighton |isbn=978-1-901177-62-6 }}
===Books of work with contributions by Robertson=== *''Picture Post: Women''. London: Collins & Brown, 1993. By Juliet Gardiner. {{ISBN|9781855851665}}.
==Collections== Robertson's work is held in the following public collections: *National Galleries of Scotland, Scotland: 7 prints (as of January 2021)<ref name="nationalgalleries"/> *Science Museum Group, UK: 3 prints (as of January 2021)<ref name="sciencemuseumgroup"/> *Tate, London: 7 prints (as of January 2021)<ref name="tate"/> *The Aldrich Collection, University of Brighton School of Art, Brighton and Hove: 2 prints (as of January 2021)<ref>{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2021|title=Grace Robertson|url=http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/collections/aldrich/grace-robertson|website=arts.brighton.ac.uk}}</ref> *Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 22 prints (as of January 2021)<ref name="vam"/> A portrait of Robertson by Rena Pearl is held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2021|title=Grace Robertson – National Portrait Gallery|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp68125/grace-robertson|website=www.npg.org.uk}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book |last1=Rosenblum |first1=Naomi |title=A History of Women Photographers |date=2014 |publisher=Abbeville |location=New York}} *{{cite book |last1=Robertson |first1=Grace |last2=Williams |first2=Val |last3=Graham |first3=Beryl |last4=Wells |first4=Liz |last5=Friend |first5=Melanie |title=Signals: Festival of Women Photographers |date=1994 |publisher=Interchange Studios |location=London}} *{{cite book |last1=Robertson |first1=Grace |title=Grace Robertson: photojournalist of the 50s |date=1989 |publisher=Virago |location=London |isbn=1853810894}}
==External links== *[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/jan/14/grace-robertson-pioneering-photographer-in-pictures Selection of photographs including a self-portrait] in ''The Guardian''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Grace}} Category:1930 births Category:2021 deaths Category:English women photographers Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Artists from Manchester Category:20th-century British photographers Category:English people of Scottish descent Category:English photojournalists Category:20th-century English women Category:20th-century English people Category:Picture Post photojournalists Category:British women photojournalists