John Gay was a German-born British photographer known for his images capturing everyday life in England from the 1930s-1950s. He studied watercolor painting in London and defined his photographic approach as favoring detailed close-up shots over wide landscapes. Gay documented all aspects of English culture, seeking out unusual angles and perspectives. While some of his shots appear candid, he was also known to stage compositions. His archive of over 40,000 images was left to English Heritage and helps document social history and changing landscapes in Britain during his lifetime.

1. JOHN GAY
1909-1999
Henri Cartier-Bresson once said that photographers deal in things that are continually
vanishing, and that no contrivance on Earth can bring back again. Not even photography
can bring these things back, he said, except in the memory of those who knew them, or in
the imaginations of those who did not. What do you think?

2. High Street, Badminton, Avon
1952

3. Henry Hugh Arthur Fitzroy Somerset, 10th Duke of Beaufort , on a horse and surrounded by hound dogs as they pass through a gate at his seat, Badminton
House

4. Two white-coated judges look at caged birds in a marquee at the Royal Show, Bristol
1958

5. 1958

7. Born Hans Ludwig Gohler in the German
town of Karlsruhe. He came to England
in 1935 on a student visa,
HE STUDIED WATERCOLOUR
PAINTING IN LONDON

8. In a 1936 article entitled "But One True Viewpoint"
Gay defines his approach using four principles.
First, "spacious views do not give photography its full scope; it scores in careful and minute details."
Second, light and shadow add interest to a picture, and a carefully-chosen focus point guides the viewer's
eye.
Third, the angle and viewpoint can create an interesting contrast between perspective, proportion and
form,
Fourth, an original and unusual perspective makes an image arresting.

10. Gay profiled the
entirety of the
English way of life,
warts and all: people
and places; town and
country; cats and
dogs.

11. The images are not falsely
contrived, not desiccated
set-piece studio shots;
rather, Gay's camera
captures naturally occurring
moments.
He is a species of
photojournalist who is also
an artist, his painter's
training revealed in his
photographs.

12. These photographs are
meticulously composed, but not
contrived—witnesses to an
England both changing and
immutable, to imaginative
whimsy and to the solid world.
The detail in all the photographs
is extraordinary and compelling:
each image demands at least an
hour's study, because it is a silent
social record of a moment in
England's past. --Alexander J
Betts

13. This photograph of a
tramp may be less
spontaneous than it
appears at first
glance.
The fire at which he
warms his hands is
not lit, suggesting
that the picture is
posed.

14. “He made such imaginative
photographs and managed to
catch the mood beautifully.
He and John Betjeman were
friends, and they shared a
fascination with people as well as
architecture and landscapes.
John [Gay] managed to catch
people in unusual poses, or
landscapes with a bit of mist or
snow. He was a European
intellectual, but foremost an artist.”
John Murray

15. A portrait of John Gay taken by his
wife, Marie, in 1959.
He is using the format of camera
he favoured for much of his
career, a Rolleiflex Automat.
A viewfinder in the top allowed a
picture to be composed and
focused discreetly, and created a
square 2.5"x2.5" negative.
A practical man, he converted his
roofrack into a mobile
photographic platform.

16. GAY IS PRIMARILY KNOWN FOR HIS IMAGES OF BLACKPOOL
1949

17. Andrew Sargent, said: "John was photographing at a time of huge change. He captured a way of life that simply does not exist any more.
Landscapes and town centres are different, and so are the British people - the picture of a man in the sea at Blackpool still wearing his
outdoor clothes looks peculiar now, but that is what people did in the 1940s

18. His photographs
capture people going
about their everyday
lives and they are
special because he
was looking at Britain
through foreign eyes.
He saw it all in a very
fresh sort of way
because this was his
adopted country.

20. REMIND YOU OF ANYONE?

22. John was heavily involved
in the conservation of
Highgate Cemetery,
publishing Highgate
Cemetery: Victorian
Valhalla with Felix Barker
in1984.
This sleeping lion guards
the tomb of George
Wombwell (died 1850) who
was famous for his
menagerie of exotic
animals.

23. He was also drawn to details, such as this cast iron terminal on a grave. The drift of cow parsley would also have pleased him, as his conservation
philosophy was that the cemetery should look natural rather than park-like.

25. Although an
acclaimed
photographer in his
day, Gay's work fell
out of fashion. On
his death in 1999,
he left an archive of
40,000 black and
white images to
English Heritage.