John Bulmer was a pioneer of colour photography in the early 1960’s working
for the Sunday Times Magazine from the very first issue till the 1970’s
He was brought up in Herefordshire, became a passionate photographer, and
when he went to study engineering at Cambridge continued taking
photographs- first for the University newspaper Varsity and then for Image,
a picture magazine that he co-founded. He also started shooting
stories on Cambridge for Queen Magazine, the Daily Express newspaper, and
finally a story on the Night Climbers of Cambridge which sold to Life
Magazine.
This ended his career at Cambridge, and he went up to London where he was
offered a job as photographer on the Daily Express. At the time the
Express was the foremost paper in Britain for photography, and did many
assignments in association with Paris Match.
He soon started shooting stories for Town Magazine, a new fashion magazine
that became well known for good photography, using others such as Terrence
Donovan, David Bailey and Don McCullin. John Bulmer did many
groundbreaking stories for them including; The Black Country, Nelson, The
North, as well as overseas stories in South America, Africa, New Guinea and
Indonesia.
The Sunday Times then produced the first of the Colour Supplements, later
copied by all the newspapers. John Bulmer shared the cover of the first
issue with David Bailey- a picture of a footballer he took surrounded by
pictures of Jean Shrimpton’s armpit! This was a small start but John
soon had a contract to shoot sixty pages a year, and travelled to nearly
100 countries on their behalf.
The writer Martin Harrison, in his book about photography in the 60’s “The
Young Meteors” describes the start of the Colour Magazines:-
“The switch to colour was, therefore, quite sudden and few photographers
were prepared for it.
John Bulmer was recognised immediately for having made the necessary
adjustment and thinking specifically in terms of colour became one of the
most prolific contributors of colour reportage to the Sunday Times Colour
Section.
Many of Bulmer’s most important assignments were abroad, but he was also
acknowledged as an adroit recorder of provincial Britain. His reputation as
a recorder of the industrial cityscape was probably gained at Town, where
he was responsible for stories on Nelson, Lancashire, The Black Country,
and The North is dead”
His work was several times singled out for awards by the Design and Art
Directors Club and he has had pictures shown at the Gallery of Modern Art
in New York, the Photographers' Gallery in London, and the National Museum
of Photography in Bradford
By the early seventies the Sunday Times changed course, looking for stories
on “Crime, Middle class living and Fashion” as described to Bulmer by the
new editor.
It was time for a change and John Bulmer moved sideways into making
documentary films. He filmed a programme on the life of Van Gogh in the
South of France, directed by Mai Zetterling, and went on to direct many
films on travel and untouched tribes in the most inaccessible parts of the
world. These were primarily shown on BBC, Nat Geo and Discovery Channel.
He has now returned to Herefordshire to catalogue and show his huge
collection of still photographs, many of which have never been seen.
Philippe Vermès
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