Picture Post, Premier British News Magazine Collection

Picture Post was the premier British news magazine of the day and is widely considered a high-water mark for British photojournalism. Launched under the editorship of Hungarian émigré Stefan Loran, who left Germany after being imprisoned by Hitler, the magazine was staunchly antifascist and sympathetic to social causes. Its photojournalists pioneered new forms of story telling under the editorship of Stefan Lorrant and later Tom Hopkinson.

Once read by close to half the UK population the magazine's circulation reached a staggering 1.7 million copies within weeks of its launch. The staff photographers were a mix of Brits and Europeans schooled in the classic style of 35mm Continental photojournalism. Included here are photos of ordinary people doing ordinary things taken by Bert Hardy, Felix H Man, Grace Robertson, Bill Brandt, Kurt Hutton, John Chillingworth, Thurston Hopkins and others whose innovative use of photojournalism captured the imagination of the British people.