Artwork Title: Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal, 1963

Dorothy Bohm

In the summer of 1963 I was in Lisbon with my husband. We'd met when I was 16 and he was 20, and we were by then very happily married. He was a scientist working with petrochemicals; he had to travel a lot for work, and whenever I could I went with him. It was a break from working in my studio in Manchester. Wherever I went, my camera went with me. Lisbon was an exciting city – dilapidated, but full of history. One day, towards early evening, I climbed up to the castle. I got to the top, looked down, saw the shadow of the trees on the courtyard below, and thought it would make a wonderful picture. But I felt it needed a human element. Suddenly, a woman walked across the courtyard carrying a child; as I was watching her, a dog appeared, and the woman stopped to look at it. I took the photograph right away, using my Rolleiflex camera. I've always been lucky with my photography: when I carry my camera, things happen. This photograph works because each of the elements is right: the shadows, the woman, the dog. For me, it's very important that everything works together: it's instinctive. In photography you don't just see, you also have to feel. A photograph depends on just a fraction of a second: you have to feel that moment, and capture it. I took just one or two exposures. I am very different from most photographers because I started in the 1940s, when you couldn't get hold of a lot of film. Even when I did portraits, I would only take four images. But I knew when I got back to England and developed it that this would be a powerful shot, especially because it is in black and white. I started working with color in the 1980s, when I felt I'd said everything I had to say in black and white – but this image wouldn't be the same in color. Women photographers are lucky because they can get away with things that men can't. If you're interested in the human aspect of photography, as I am, then you have to photograph people, and as a woman you are less intrusive. Also, when you have children, it changes your outlook: the humanist element of your work becomes even stronger. Photography for me has been a lifeline. When you've been doing it since the age of 16, as I have – and that's more than 70 years now – it becomes completely natural, like eating and drinking. [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/apr/07/photography-dorothy-bohm-best-shot]
Uploaded on Feb 16, 2018 by Suzan Hamer

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