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It’s a few years since we last highlighted the John Turner Collection and as it’s one of those 'absolute bangers' (to use modern musical parlance) we really felt it deserved a second outing.
In 2018, Liz Turner and her husband Martin Carroll unearthed a suitcase full of photographic negatives taken by Liz's father, John Turner, which had been in the loft since he died in 1987. Most of the images had never been made into prints, but scanning the negatives revealed that John had taken a succession of superb images, all done while he worked as a property manager for a firm of estate agents.
The photographs cover around 40 years, beginning in the 1930s with pre-War London as well as Paris and Munich, and continue into the 1960s. John Turner was a gifted photographer and had great compositional skills as well as an eye for a quirky shot. He captured all human life from every angle; shooting bustling East End market scenes, views from the top deck of a bus, retro shop fronts, moody city vistas, the world of work and people at leisure. From the circus elephants coming to town to the street decorations for Princess Margaret’s 1960 wedding, the 400 photographs combine artistry, wit, and nostalgia – their subject and style even hint at more recent social photographers like Martin Parr. But ultimately, they’re a transporting link to a past just beginning to slip out of reach.
John Turner was unknown as a photographer in his lifetime, but the discovery of the collection unsurprisingly gained quite a bit of publicity with short films on CNN and the BBC, which can be viewed
here and
here.
The images are available solely through Mary Evans, and would be terrific for book covers among many other uses. We think a
browse through the 400-strong collection is well worth a few minutes of your time.
Our newsletters aim to remind you of the impressive breadth and depth of our collection and we hope you find something to inspire you. You can discover more about the different archives we represent via our collections and artists index found in the Explore section of our home page. Whatever project you’re working on, we’d love to help. Do get in touch by dropping us a line at
pictures@maryevans.com or calling 020 8318 0034. We look forward to being of service. | 
