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Our newsletter for May features highlights of several collections, including art from the Medici Society and photographs of artists, actors, writers and designers from the Annabel Watts Collection. We also have news of fotofringe London 2014 this week.

But we start with a wonderful new representation of the collection of Paul Kaye whose photographs of children playing in the streets in the 1950s and early 1960s are a delight.

A 1950s childhood

Do you remember Pathé News? Taking the train to the seaside? The purple stains of iodine on the knees of boys in short trousers?' So asks Paul Feeney, author of evocative nostalgia book A 1950s Childhood in Pictures, out now from The History Press. The book features exclusively Mary Evans Picture Library images, drawing on one of our undoubted strengths: black and white photographs of children and street scenes in Britain in the mid-20th century from eminent photographers including Roger Mayne, Henry Grant and Maurice Ambler.

This perennially interesting genre has been further enhanced by the work of a new contributor to the library, Paul Kaye. Mary Evans are now able to exclusively offer complete access to an archive containing the work of Paul's father and grandfather (also both called Paul), who worked together in successful partnership for 37 years. This provided an experience that taught Paul's father to find and create pictures that would strike a chord with the public and commissioning editors, while an early career in show business lent a theatrical flourish to his work.

He had an undoubted talent for telling a story and his images, which are populated by a cast of children, cheeky and charming by turns, strongly evoke a sense of time and place. Photographed in the Kayes' local area of Balham, South London in the late 1950s and early 1960s, they present us with a nostalgic view of childhood - one where kids ate fish and chips out of newspaper or rowdily filled cinema auditoriums on a Saturday morning. A time of skipping ropes, handstands and secret dens; puppies, The Dandy and pop from the shop. The Paul Kaye Collection conjures up what seems now a lost world without sentiment and instead with pitch-perfect humour and empathy.

We hope you enjoy these wonderful photographs as much as we do.

A 1950s Childhood in Pictures is available from The History Press, Amazon and many other outlets.

Art and life

We've recently uploaded a small but perfectly formed photographic collection featuring a variety of interesting characters. The Annabel Watts Collection has a distinctly artistic bent with photographs of garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, painter and sculptor G.F. Watts, novelist Alphonse Daudet, architect Edwin Lutyens, and designer Christopher Dresser, as well as Beatrix Potter, Sir John Everett Millais and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

You can view the images by clicking here.

Palestine and Transjordania

We wanted to alert you to this stunning set of photographic plates from the Pharcide Collection's book, Palestine and Transjordania by Ludwig Preiss and Paul Rohrbach, published in 1926. The set is well worth a look and some of the street and people shots of this complex and fascinating region are particularly beautiful.

Click here to view an edited selection.


New Medici society

Our representation of the Medici Society archive has yielded another excellent crop of watercolour, gouache and oil paintings ideal for use on book covers. In a variety of styles, the set is dominated by figures in interiors or in the landscape, a sense of stillness enhanced by muted tones, although here and there colour and noise break out in beach scenes or energetic still lifes.

The images can be licensed for a wide range of uses though aren't currently available for greetings cards.

You can view the paintings here.


fotofringe London 2014

You won't want to miss this year's fotofringe event on Thursday 22nd May at Kings Place, near King's Cross station in London. This professional networking event for picture buyers and picture agencies has become a rare opportunity to meet up with many libraries in one go in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere, and is the perfect chance to find out about new collections and revisit established ones. The day is free for picture users to attend and is on from 10am to 5.30pm, nearly enough time to get round the 100+ exhibitors expected!

We'll be there in the St Pancras room on table 6, and as it's our 50th anniversary this year, expect a few treats and goodies to take away.

For more information and to register for free, click here.


Scent and scandal

And finally, a few photos from our Scent and Scandal event, held a month or so ago at Brasserie Zedel in London in partnership with Odette Toilette. A lively afternoon of fragrance, fizz and factual fun was enjoyed by an appreciative audience.

Let us know what you think

We welcome your feedback about this newsletter or any aspect of the Mary Evans Picture Library. Please write to us at pictures@maryevans.com. If you'd rather be unsubscribed from our mailing list, please click here.

Best wishes,

Mary Evans Picture Library

Mary Evans Picture Library Ltd. 59 Tranquil Vale, Blackheath, London, SE3 0BS. United Kingdom.