On Home Ground

First edition of On Home Ground by Denis Thorpe. First impression. Medium format hardback in fine condition. Signed by the artist on the title page.

About

Denis Thorpe began his career influenced by the great photojournalists and their work in the famous illustrated magazines of the Forties and Fifties. His career began just too late for him to be able to join their number, but they have remained an enduring inspiration, and he has, ever since, constantly transcended the role of the press photographer to produce images that demand attention. Some colleagues did not always understand or appreciate this, but eventually, once he had joined the Guardian, he was to find his photographs being used front page, not as journalistic items relating the news of the day, but purely for their compositional value. He came to deeply appreciate this quiet support for his picture making.
As the distinguished photographic historian Peter Hamilton points out in his Introduction, there is a recurring humanistic element in Denis Thorpe's work, but it is his pictorialism that often comes to the fore, his ability to frame a composition with inherent beauty. Although he has worked all over the world on assignments, this book has concentrated on his work in the British Isles. Over the years, he has created a portrait of his own country that is beautifully presented in this book and in the exhibition that it accompanies.
The people are here portrayed with both humour and compassion, as are their cityscapes and their countryside. Beginning with his early portrayal of his family and their home in Mansfield and ending with remarkable images of pastoral beauty, this book creates a pictorial essay framed by a sympathetic eye with extraordinary sensitivity and skill.