John Bulmer

John Bulmer 1938 - 

At last we arrive in the UK to talk about John Bulmer who was a pioneer of colour photography in the early 1960's working for The Sunday Times Magazine from the very first issue till the 1970's. I have to admit that up until a discussion in class last week, I wasn't aware of John but on researching some of his work I can at least say I recognise more than a fair few and if the truth be known I'm actually a fan of his and didn't even know it. Raised in Hereford, he eventually went on to study engineering at Cambridge whilst at the same time continuing to develop his love of photography by shooting for Varsity (the in house newspaper) as well as for others including The Daily Express which at the time was one of the leading newspapers in the country for photography. Eventually John moved to London where he was offered a job as a photographer on the Daily Express, and did many assignments in association with Paris Match magazine. He eventually started shooting for Town Magazine which at the time had a reputation for good photography and went on to produce some ground breaking work including ; The Black Country, Nelson and The North as well as overseas stories in South America, Africa, New Guinea and Indonesia.

For me, John certainly knows how to fill a frame but in the interest of short depth of field, within his work, there are many fine examples and the first I'll chose is from his Hartlepool collection and demonstrates that the chosen depth of field, even when short, doesn't have to be to the forefront of the picture to be able to capture your attention in the same way that what ever is actually in the forefront of the picture doesn't necessarily distract you from the theme, even if it's out of focus.

Another example of a short depth of field comes from his North UK collection and once again demonstrates how the chosen point of focus isn't contradicted by a blurred foreground as you can see in this shot from a mill where, after realising you are at first watching a loom being worked by one girl yet all of a sudden you are taken through the picture and spot the smiling face of the other girl at the back of the room with a wonderful smile, head scarf and hair do that was not a million miles away from what my mum was sporting at around the same time but you'll have to take my word for that. 

                                               

And finally a personal favourite from his Nelson collection, and not because we've all been there and done it, but because it possesses within a single frame, everything that makes me as a Northerner.proud of my roots, sense of humour and upbringing.....I guess I should also point out its classic use of short depth of field shown simply in the ever decreasing focus of the cobbles but if you've been paying attention you should know that by now anyway.

                                       


One last thing; I mentioned earlier about John Bulmer being one of the pioneers in the use of colour photography so if you've got a taste for John and fancy seeing more, including his work that was produced in colour, then you'd better get yourself along to here for a sweetener.