Title
Lewis Morley Archive
Reference
MOR
Production date
1950 - 2010
Creator
- Morley, Lewis FrederickBiographyBiography
Lewis Frederick Morley was born in Hong Kong on 13th June 1925. He was one of the three children of a Chinese mother, Lucie Chan, and an English father, also named Lewis, who was chief pharmacist to the colony. During the second world war he was held with his family in Stanley internment camp by the occupying Japanese army. Watercolours he produced in the camp later won him a place at Twickenham College of Art (1949-52), in south-west London, where he studied after serving with the RAF once the family had moved back to Britain.
In 1952 he moved to Paris where he studied painting at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
In 1954 Morley married Patricia "Pat" Clifford.
A portfolio of Morley's early photographs were published by the picture editor Norman Hall in Photography magazine in 1957 as the latest "Young Britain" discovery. Introductions by friends led to Morley working on assignments for Tatler magazine from 1958 onwards, photographing subjects such as the newly married Peter Hall and Leslie Caron in 1961.
A 1960 Tatler commission, The Day of the Swot at Cambridge, included a photograph of William Donaldson which was to lead to Morley photographing the satire boom of the 1960s and the early days of Private Eye magazine, particularly when he moved his studio to an upper floor in the building in which Peter Cook ran the Establishment club in Soho, London.
Morley's friendship with Cook made him a regular photographic contributor to Private Eye in its early days. He produced spoof portraits. Morley also dabbled in real fashion stories, working with models including Marie-Lise Gres and Jenny Boyd for magazines such as She and Harper's Bazaar and, most notably, taking the first published photographs as a fashion model of Jean Shrimpton for Go! Magazine in 1961. Another first were his photographs of Twiggy in an old fur coat, published in London Life magazine in 1965, before she officially became "the face of 1966".
Morley was introduced to theatre photography at the Royal Court by Lindsay Anderson who commissioned him to photograph Serjeant Musgrave's Dance in 1959, the first of more than 100 stage plays he photographed for impresarios such as Oscar Lewenstein and Michael Codron. Highlights include his portrait of Albert Finney as Billy Liar. Morley also photographed the stage actors Tom Courtenay, Peter O'Toole, Alan Badel and John Hurt. His work on films included a shot of Judi Dench in Four in the Morning (1965) and Clint Eastwood on the set of Where Eagles Dare (1968).
In 1971, persuaded by friends who had already left Britain, Morley and his family emigrated to Australia where he began a new career specialising in interiors photography as well as some portraiture. He retired in 1987.
In 1999, Lewis Morley appeared in the Contemporary Australian Photographers series. It was followed in 2003 with the release of a film about his life and an exhibition Myself and Eye at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. In 2006, an extensive exhibition showcasing 50 years of Lewis Morley work was displayed at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. This included 150 of his works covering fashion, theatre and reportage, many of which had never been seen before.
Scope and Content
This collection is the archive of portrait photographer Lewis Morley. The archive spans the entirety of Morley's career, but is particularly rich in photography from the 1960s.
The collection includes a substantial negative archive (estimated at 200,000 individual negatives). Alongside the negatives there are also 2,100 signed art prints, predominantly from the 1960s. Many of the negative folders also include draft, unsigned prints and contact sheets. The photography in these series' range from Morley's own personal snapshots to professional assignments which were later published in publications including Tatler and Private Eye. The types of photography include reportage, portraiture, landscapes, still life, advertising photography and theatre photography - there is a particularly large amount of portraiture.
The archive also includes Morley's personal and professional papers. These series contain press cuttings, publications including Morley's photography, exhibition catalogues, correspondence and materials relating to a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2006.
Extent
c. 130 boxes
Physical description
The condition of this collection is fair, with some series' in poor condition due to bad housing and storage prior to the collection's move to the National Science and Media Museum. In some cases, there is inactive mould in some boxes, which have been isolated.
Language
English
Archival history
This collection was donated to the Natonal Science and Media Museum in 2015.
Level of description
TOP
Repository name
National Science and Media Museum, Bradford
Subject
Conditions governing access
This archive is currently undergoing processing and is known to contain confidential data protected under the Data Protection Act. Until the collection has been fully processed, it is closed to public access. A small series of the collection containing art prints is publicly accessible in the interim period.
Conditions governing Reproduction
Copies may be supplied of items in the collection, provided that the copying process used does not damage the item or is not detrimental to its preservation. Copies will be supplied in accordance with the NSMM’s terms and conditions for the supply and reproduction of copies, and the provisions of any relevant copyright legislation.
System of arrangement
This collection is currently undergoing processing and a system of arrangement has yet to be established. This field will be updated at a later date.