Daily Encounters

Daily newspapers - with bold graphic text and arresting hard - boiled headlines and sensational photographs became one of the defining media forms of the twentieth century. Public figures were central to the papers' appeal, and the lives of royalty, politicians and performers were all scrutinized. Yet the history of the photographers who captured these figures in print has been neglected. "Daily Encounters" aims to redress the balance with a celebration of press portraits from the Golden Age of Fleet Street. It traces the emergence of a new breed of press photographer, often from working-class obscurity, who came to produce some of the most memorable images in the history of the medium. From Charlie Chaplin caught taking a stroll through London, Winston Churchill inspecting bomb damage to John Lennon and Yoko Ono leaving court after drug charges and Lady Diana's early encounters with the paparazzi, these portraits have come to define our memory of the twentieth century. In his foreword, Bill Deedes, a "Fleet Street" journalist from 1931, remarks on the press portraits that he remembers most vividly.
With over 60 illustrations, this unique photographic history, will accompany the landmark exhibition "Daily Encounters, Photographs from Fleet Street" at the National Portrait Gallery, London 5 July-21 October 2007.