Walter Bird (photographer)

Walter Bird (1903-1969) was a British photographer.

Early in his career Walter Bird worked mostly on advertising commissions and portraits that were published in periodicals such as Theatre World and Tatler. He shared his studios at Kinocrat House on the Cromwell Road, London with the renowned photographer Joan Craven. He became famous for his images of nudes and was a rival of the photographers John Everard and Horace Roye. As the intense competition was harming their business, they eventually decided to cooperate instead, which led to them in 1939 setting up a joint company called Photo Centre Ltd.

They made their headquarters in a suite of rooms above Walter Bird’s studio in Savile Row. The fabulously titled Eves without Leaves (C. Arthur Pearson Ltd., London, 1940) was their first publication, which naturally proved popular with Allied troops during the Second World War.^[1] In September 1940, however, the photographic studios were severely damaged by the German Luftwaffe during a bombing raid.

When Walter Stoneman died in 1958 Bird took over his position as chief photographer for J. Russell & Sons, purchasing the business in 1961. Bird superseded Stoneman as the official photographer for the National Photographic Record, initiated by the National Portrait Gallery in 1917 to record important and influential citizens.^[2]

Publications

• Beauty’s Daughters, John Long Ltd, London, 1938
• Beauty’s Self, John Long Ltd, London, 1941
• Eves Without Leaves (with Roye and John Everard), C. Arthur Pearson, London, 1940.
• More Eves Without Leaves (with Roye and John Everard), The Camera Studies Club, Elstree, 1941.
• Eternal Eve (with Roye and John Everard), Elstree Publications, London, 1947.
• Miniature Lovelies (with Roye and John Everard), The Camera Studies Club, Elstree
• Curves and Colour (with Roye and John Everard), The Camera Studies Club, Elstree
• Graceful Memories, The New Spotlight on Beauty Series No. 1, The Camera Studies Club, Elstree
• Andre: Britain’s Venus, The New Spotlight on Beauty Series No. 4, The Camera Studies Club, Elstree

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References