| Edward Fitzmaurice Chambré Hardman | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Edward Chambré Hardman wearing his trademark hat. |
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| Born | 1898 Foxrock, Dublin |
| Died | 1988 Liverpool |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Other names | Chambré Hardman |
| Occupation | photographer |
| Known for | photography |
Edward Fitzmaurice Chambré Hardman (1898 - April 2, 1988[1]) was an Irish photographer.
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E. Chambré Hardman was born in 1898 in Dublin, Ireland. The only son of the keen amateur photographer Edward Hardman, E. Chambré Hardman took his first photographs aged nine and went on to win many photographic competitions during his time at St. Columba's College in County Dublin.
From the age of eighteen, he spent four years as a regular officer in the Gurkha Rifles in India where he would eventually be promoted to lieutenant. While on active duty at the foothills of the Himalayas, he found time for photography using his Eastman Kodak No. 3 Special camera and processed rolls of film in his bathroom.
Whilst stationed at the Khyber Pass he met Captain Kenneth Burrell, a man who hadn't planned on an army career but rather hoped to set up a photographic studio back home in Liverpool, England. Hardman and Burrell decided to go into business together and in 1923, Burrell & Hardman acquired 51a Bold Street in Liverpool's fashionable commercial centre.
Starting the business was difficult, and Hardman resorted to selling and repairing wirelesses to subsidise the studio. Eventually the it gained a reputation for being the place for anyone with distinction in Merseyside to be photographed by Burrell & Hardman.
In 1926 Chambré Hardman appointed seventeen year-old Margaret Mills as his assistant. At first, she would look after the studio in Hardman's absence when he was in the South of France that year.
In 1929 Margaret had left the studio to train as a photographer in Paisley, Scotland. Margaret and Hardman kept in touch through frequent affectionate letters. In the same year Kenneth Burrell left the business entirely to Hardman.
In 1930 Hardman was awarded 1st prize in the American Annual of Photography and a gold medal in London for his picture "Martigues" taken whilst in France in 1926.
While portraiture was Hardman's livelihood, his real photographic interest was landscape photography, which he pursued throughout his life alongside his commercial practice.
The 1930s was a prolific period for Hardman's landscape photography, he said that "Most of my childish dreams were of landscapes; usually of some remote and spectacularly sired lake, which I could never find again."
In 1930, not long after Hardman and Margaret discuss starting a portrait business together, Margaret wrote to say she'd fallen in love with 'Tony'. Hardman's response was that she was too young and "that kind of love doesn't last". Hardman confessed to a friend that he'd "been a fool. I should have married her long ago but i had no money". Hardman didn't give up however and cabled his love from Barcelona. In May 1931, Margaret broke off her engagement to Tony. On August 10, 1932 Hardman married Margaret, he was aged 33 and her 23. They rented a flat at 59 Hope Street, Liverpool. They worked long hours at the studio but still found time for weekend expeditions, strapping camera equipment on to their bicycles and riding out into the countryside to shoot landscapes. Also in 1932 Hardman earned a contract with the Liverpool Playhouse theatre providing portraits and production shots of actors. Some of the actors photographed included Ivor Novello, Patricia Routledge and Robert Donat.
Hardman was elected a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and took many landscape photographs in Scotland, as well as a portrait of Margot Fonteyn. In 1938 Hardman took over the lease of a second portrait studio based in Chester.
During the war years business seemed to thrive, although because of this Hardman's landscape photography suffered as he had no time. During the Second World War there was a black market in films but Hardman didn't get involved. The business thrived during the war because of the number of men going abroad wanting to have a picture of their family to take with them, or to leave a picture of themselves with their family. In 1941 the Hardman's moved to Barnston on the Wirral. They stayed there for seven years until the Bold Street studio lease expired. The Hardman's then moved to a grander premises at 59 Rodney Street. This became their new studio and also their home for the rest of their lives.
In 1950 Hardman took what was to become "the most reproduced photograph illustrating and era of Liverpool's commerce" (Peter Hagerty p106), "Birth of the Ark Royal". By 1953 however it seemed the business was in uncertain times as there's evidence showing Hardman applying for other jobs including, work at the Bluecoat Society of Arts and Kodak. In the same year, Kenneth Burrell died aged 60. In 1958 Hardman suffered further loss with the death of his mother. The lease on the Chester studio also ended.
In 1965/6 Hardman officially retired, but did continue to work by taking portraits for small commissions and taking evening classes for the Army. He also continued with some landscape photography, but he only employed part time staff as the fashion of the formal photograph waned. The contents of the property suffered increasing neglect, along with several pipe bursts causing chaos in many rooms in the house.
In 1969 Margaret took the well known photograph of Chambré Hardman behind the Rollerflex in his collar, tie and trilby. A year later Margaret died, Hardman not only lost his wife, but his business partner, photographic companion and a very skillful darkroom painter. Following her death Hardman declined. So much so, that he came to the attention of Liverpool's social services department. He became a recluse and worked less as time went by. He did however, continue to send exhibition prints to the London Salon.
In March 1975, an exhibition of Hardman's work titled 'Fifty Years of Photography' was displayed at the University of Liverpool. A year later Lancashire Life magazine did a feature article and profile of Hardman. Liverpool Daily Post recorded "140,000 negs. from 1925 handed over to Central Library". Hardman was described in the article as selling negatives from his collection to Liverpool's local history archive.
By 1979 Hardman made few excursions out of his home and found increasing difficulty in walking, suffering a fall. When Peter Hagerty, director of Liverpool's Open Eye Gallery, visited him, he said of the experience:
"...this frail old man came down the stairs, there were four or five people from social services tidying up; they had gowns on and were filling bin bags with rubbish. I started looking in the bags and saw photographs and negatives and magazines; I was instantly aware that a historical record was being thrown away: he had made no provision for anything. He didn't think about dying. He had money but would not buy a home help. He'd rely on home help and then complain."
. Hardman accepted the suggestion from Hagerty that he should set up a trust subsequently deciding to bequeath the bulk of his estate.
Exhibitions and articles of Hardman's work continued to be presented throughout the 80s and he was made an honourary fellow of the Royal Photographic Society
Throughout the 1980s, exhibitions of Hardman's work continued while he suffered long stays in hospital. On the 2nd April 1988, E. Chambré Hardman died at Sefton General Hospital in Liverpool. His house and studio, at 59 Rodney Street, was taken over by the E. Chambré Hardman Trust in order to conserve his work which was later transferred to the National Trust.
Famous photographs of E. Chambre Hardman include:
Chambre Hardman: Photographs 1921-1972 (National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside : 1994)
Liverpool Through the Lens: Photography of Edward Chambre Hardman (National Trust Books : 2007)