The 1950s is not an especially fondly remembered decade, still feeling the effects of the Second World War through rationing and looked on as a grey and cheerless time. Forget everything you thought you knew about the decade that colour forgot – here is The Photographer’s Gallery in London with a retrospective of the work of live-wire Finnish photographer Claire Aho in the period between 1950 and 1970.
Aho began making her professional life making documentary films before making the switch to still images and setting up her own commercial studio. However, she had been taking pictures ever since her father gave her a camera aged 10, when she would gain an understanding of composition by snapping her granny’s paintings. Her colour work was at the forefront of Finnish photography, and often used humour to bring her scenes to life. Claire Aho: Studio Works, looking back across a 20 year period, can be seen until 21st July.
Claire Aho
Compressor Refrigerator, c. early 1950s
12 x 16 inches
© JB
From Cotton Rhapsody catalogue, 1958
Models, Unknown female & Rami Sarmasto
16 x 12 inches
© JB
Claire Aho
Untitled, c. early 1960s
16 x 12 inches
© JB
Claire Aho
From Cotton Rhapsody Catalogue, 1958
16 x 12 inches
© JB
Claire Aho
Advertisement for Me Naiset (We Women) Magazine, 1959
16 x 12 inches
© JB
Claire Aho
Untitled, c. mid 1950s
16 x 12 inches
© JB
Claire Aho
From Cotton Rhapsody Catalogue, 1958 16 x 12 inches
© JB
All images courtesy of the artist,
and The Photographers’ Gallery
