The doyenne of British photography: Dorothy Bohm

Dorothy Bohm in conversation with her daughter and co-curator, Monica Bohm

Manchester Art Gallery’s current major exhibition, A World Observed, traces the career of one of the doyennes of British photography, Dorothy Bohm, and plunders this octogenarian’s archives to put together the first real retrospective exhibition of her work ever to be staged – featuring 250 works that trace a career spanning six decades and several continents.

Prussian-born Bohm, who fled to England at the outbreak of WW2, is one of the founding directors of The Photographers’ Gallery in London. This exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery walks us through her career, from early black and white portraits (many from Manchester, incidentally, where she first trained and worked as a commercial photographer), through experiments with Polaroids in the 1980s, to her more recent abstract work.

While Bohm isn’t a household name, she has had a huge influence on British photography, working through the Photographers’ Gallery to establish the discipline as a serious art form and giving emerging artists their big breaks. ‘She gave people like Martin Parr their first shows,’ says her daughter (and co-curator of the exhibition), Monica Bohm. ‘So she is incredibly well respected in the industry – she’s the elder stateswoman of British photography, if you like, and is an honorary fellow of The Royal Photographic Society.’

The exhibition in Manchester is likely to interest both photo aficionados and those interested in social history – Monica Bohm describes her mother’s early work as ‘humanist street photography, capturing the moment in the manner of Cartier Bresson’. Bohm, meanwhile, continues to take pictures that belie her advancing years. ‘People are often surprised by the youth and vibrancy of her colour work,’ says Monica Bohm. ‘She focuses on fragments of the urban landscape – mannequins, advertising hoardings – that are otherwise overlooked. These photographs have an abstract quality; there’s a deliberate spatial ambiguity and you’re not quite sure what you’re looking at. But nothing is manipulated – she will still only work with film.’

In this exclusive vodcast, Dorothy talks candidly about her career to her daughter (and co-curator of the exhibition), Monica.

A World Observed 1940-2010: Photographs by Dorothy Bohm, Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street M2 3JL (0161 235 8888). Until 30 August. Free entry.

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