Percy hennell
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Percy Hennell | |
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| Born | 12 October 1911 London |
| Died | 12 January 1987 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Saint Martin's School of Art |
| Style | clinical colour photography |
Percy Hennell (12 October 1911 – 23 January 1987) was a British war photographer, noted as the inventor of clinical colour photography.
Hennell was born to a family of jewellers. Prompted by an interest in natural history and drawing, he accepted a fully funded position at St. Martin's School of Art at just 11 years old. After working at a photographic studio in Great Portland Street, he joined the Metal Box Company Colour Photographic Department as manager in 1938.
At the height of his career, Hennell had worked with almost 100 hospitals and had taken over 5000 clinical photographs. He collaborated with many institutions and notable figures of plastic and reconstructive surgery, such as Harold Gillies of the British Association of Plastic Surgery. He became a noted World War II photographer.
Early life
Hennell was born in London on 12 October 1911. His mother was the daughter of a gold-beater and was a state registered nurse.[1] His father was a soldier throughout World War I who served in the Indian Army. He descended from a family of silver-smiths and jewellers, and was seventh in line to the company.
As a child, he was interested in natural history and drawing.[1] At the age of 11½, he was awarded a fully funded position at St Martin's School of Art to study fine art for four evenings a week.[1] He also delivered newspapers on Saturday mornings. He did both of these whilst attending state school.
In 1930, his father's failing health ended Hennell's time at art school. He moved to Barnstead in Surrey with his family. Not long after this, his father died with "only enough to be buried with". In the following years, Hennell struggled to obtain paid employment as a commercial artist. He worked at a photographic studio in Great Portland Street, earning £1 a week. He continued to practice his sculpture in his spare time at home. At the age of 27, Hennell accepted the position of Manager at the Metal Box Company Colour Photographic Department. He designed decorated biscuit and sweet tins.[1]
Clinical colour photography
In 1939-39, creating colour photographs in the form of prints was a long and expensive process. By 1939, Hennell attempted to combat this by devising a system of "making colour prints on paper from three negatives exposed synchronously in a one shot camera incorporating chromatic filters".[1] The process had existed as early as 1906 for yellow alone, but Hennell's innovation is found in his solution to control the contrast and quality of coloured images. Three positives were made by projection from three negatives and after development of their silver images each was converted into a different metallic salt. The salts were then turned into colours, after which registration of the three images was done by hand. Hennell at first used a German camera, but was given an American camera which he used for the rest of the war.[1]
Hennell was one of few early World War II photographers that shot in colour. The British Journal of Photography described Hennell's photography as "unashamedly styled", "a new kind of British photography", creating a "vision of Britishness", and "so precise and subtle that even the photographs of the most damage have an innate and moving beauty".Williams, Val (January 2011). "Keep Calm and Carry On". British Journal of Photography: 5.</ref> He is compared to British war photographer John Hinde as a "close contemporary", and both are heralded as "the only British photographers who brought colour into the practice of a stylised documentary photography made specifically for illustrated books."
World War II
Whilst expressing concerns about how relevant colour photography was to assist the war effort, Chairman of Metal Box Company Sir Robert Barlow expressed his desire to make use of these facilities in a national context.[1]
Before the start of the Battle of Britain on 5th of July 1940, Hennell's first jobs for the war effort consisted of developing photographic process had been utilised to make a record of colour coded German fuses, copying Ordnance Survey maps, to photograph sections of the human eye, record bacteriological cultures, to record the reaction of the rabbit eye to mustard gas burns, for recording ewe ovarian follicle development.[1] From June of the same year, Hennell spent the majority of his time photographing plastic surgery cases and burns at Royal Air Force hospitals at Cosford, Halton and Ely and civilian hospitals at Basingstoke, East Grinstead and Hill End, St. Albans.[1] Hennell was recording injuries and medical achievements as never before.
Between October 1941 and January 1942, Hennell accompanied plastic surgeon and consultant Harold Gillies along with his daughter Margaret Streatfield on a lecture tour of North and South America.[1] Gillies lectured on plastic surgery and Hennell on his colour photography. The tour was effective in showcasing the quality and achievements of British plastic surgery, as well as the developments of British colour photography.
Hennell's photographs illustrate many wartime publications. One of these, titled "British women go to war" was written by popular English author J. B. Priestley. It featured "highly choreographed" photos of women from many different backgrounds performing vital industrial and military tasks. Hennell depicts "stunning tableaus of women framed by metal structures" coupling the styles of both war and fashion photography. Hennell's pictures also illustrated the Manual of Chemical Warfare, the Atlas of Air-Raid Injuries in 1944, and the Typhus report in Naples. Later they appeared in the Medical history of the Second World War and in Fractures and Joint Injuries. In the first edition of the lastmentioned book, its author, Reginald Watson-Jones wrote, "His colour photography surpassed anything I have ever known; he has gained a wide knowledge of blood and bone; he has shared with me the vicissitudes of war; his camera and my scalpel have worked together".[1]
On Easter Sunday 1944, Hennell disembarked from a troop ship in Naples. He spent the next three months recording battle casualties and conditions in the underground raid shelters in Naples where at night people had no lighting, no sanitation and no water supply. "Hennell recorded the resulting typhus epidemic and its control by DDT." "He took a classic series of photographs showing the local treatment of soft tissue injuries with penicillin, which was instilled into the wounds through rubber tubes." "During the final battle for Cassino in May [Hennell] spent ten consecutive nights working with number 5 Neuro-surgical Unit." Lieutenant-Colonel Schorstein, who states that Hennell worked with enthusiasm through long hours to create a large amount of photographs. "On his return to the United Kingdom Hennell continued with his clinical photography, particularly recording the progress of burnt airmen."[1]
References
External links
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