My recent free online talk about the photographer Ursula Clark (1940-2000) can now be viewed on the Royal Photographic Society’s YouTube channel.
The images were commissioned for a series of architectural history guides published by Oriel Press of Newcastle upon Tyne.
They capture Britain at a time of seismic change to its urban landscape and record many buildings that have since been lost or dramatically altered.
Around 2,000 of Ursula’s images have been digitised by the Historic England Archive from what is the largest of its collections created by a woman photographer.
The only portrait of her in the collection was taken by an unnamed photographer.
However, using Ursula’s notes, we do have the initials of the woman who took the portrait. They are ‘M.B.W.’
Perhaps she was another of Oriel Studios photographers. Can you help identify her?
It is also fascinating to see that from time to time, Ursula set her architectural brief to one side as she toured the country with her 35mm camera.
The results are rather wonderful and unexpected.
Update 5th March 2025: Billy Embleton informs me: “That little girl is Ellen Parkin with her Uncle Jimmy Anderson in the burger van in 1965. She identified herself in 2021 when I posted the photo on Facebook. She’s now known as Ellen Przybylska.”
In my talk, I argued that these images echo those of other female photographers working during the same period such as Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (born 1948) and Tish Murtha (1956-2013).
It would be wonderful to put names to the faces in these photographs and learn more about long ago interactions with a photographer, who clearly had a rapport with flesh-and-blood subjects too.
Pressphotoman 
Leave a comment