Ben Uri Gallery

Blog

Dorothy Bohm, photographer by Katy Green

Posted by admin | 13th March 2013 Torn Poster, London by Dorothy Bohm

In preparation for our upcoming photography exhibition, '10 Days Project', Katy Green has been exploring the work of Dorothy Bohm. She recently visited the exhibition on Bohm at the Museum of London.

Bohm’s photographs are currently being shown to young people involved in Ben Uri's '10 Days Project', an innovative outreach photography project that is working with young people in both London and San Francisco exploring identity. It will culminate in an exhibition at Ben Uri, opening March 2013. For more information, please see the 10 Days Project exhibition page.

This work will also influence a learning resource on 'Identity and Portraiture' - coming soon!

I have been doing some research for the Learning department on the artist, Dorothy Bohm. I had not previously heard of her; but the more I find out about her remarkable life, the more hooked I become.

Therefore, it was with great excitement, that I discovered that her work was being exhibited at the Museum of London, just a short walk from the Ben Uri offices. At lunchtime, a couple of weeks ago, I set off in search of her exhibition and to watch a screening of two documentaries about her life.

Dorothy Bohm was sent to England, aged only 14, by her family, concerned for her safety in the face of Nazi activities. As her father kissed her goodbye, he handed her his own Leica camera saying 'it may be useful one day'.

Forced to fend for herself right from the start, she decided to get photographic training in Manchester. Much of her early photographic portrait studies were informed by the necessity of earning a living.

A lot of her work is about capturing the transience of life and giving fleetingness a presence. This perhaps reflects her early losses and her need to give permanence to things, to prevent them slipping away. She movingly states in one of the films that 'she wants to seize the things that make her happy' before 'they are gone'. Bohm says that she always 'looks for the good in people' - that she searches for positive subject matter. One of the greatest compliments that she was ever given (according to her own testimony) was that her work 'was life-enhancing'. She makes it clear that this positive optimism is her intention in all of her work.

In the Museum of London's exhibition, called 'Women in Focus', Bohm turned her attention to women in London through a selection of colour street photographs that date from the 1980s to the present day. The artist focused on stereotypical representations of women in advertisements, on posters and as mannequins in shop windows and juxtaposed them with living women; thereby engaging in a playful yet complex visual game.

These images reflected how women see and are seen in urban public spaces and revealed some of the similarities, contrasts and gaps between idealised and real London women.

Bohm’s story is a tale of personal tragedy surmounted; of a staggering 70-year-long body of work; of kindness and optimism overcoming the long shadow of her past and of a remarkable contribution to the British photographic community. I feel excited to see how Bohm’s own influences from painting and filmmaking will in turn influence the young people in the current photographic project. I can’t wait to see what kind of images they choose to convey their own identity.