1905-1993
British Modernist photographer of the 20s and 30s
Barbara Ker-Seymer trained in art at the Chelsea Polytechnic 1921-25 where she met life long friends dancer William Chappell, and artist Edward Burra, before continuing on to the RCA and the Slade. She was influenced by Bauhaus photography and the experimental portraits of Man Ray and decided to pursue photography.
She apprenticed with socialite photographer Olivia Wyndam (1897-1967), taking over her studio at 19 King’s Road Chelsea when Olivia emigrated to Harlem, New York. She also ran her own Ker Seymer Photos at 15A Grafton Street Mayfair, across from Dorothy Wilding’s studio, from 1933-40. Barbara flourished in the world of ‘The Bright Young Things’ and the jazz of African American emigres. She photographed this flamboyant group of sexually fluid and gay actors, dancers, writers and artists, including her friends socialite Nancy Cunard, my favourite, in her veils, turban and leopard skin, dancer Frederick Ashton, writer Evelyn Waugh, collector Gertrude Stein and aristocrat Julia Strachey.
With her portable Baby Box camera, Barbara was also able to photograph her subjects in informal, candid settings as well as in the highly dramatic, lit studio set ups. She famously photographed artist Jean Cocteau with his surreal masks in his bedroom and writer Vita Sackville West reclining in her country pile.
Her dramatic modernist portraits were published in Tatler and Harpers Bazaar, and she worked for Jaeger and Elizabeth Arden but sadly gave up photography when WW2 broke out and her friends scattered.
Her her albums and papers are held by the Tate.
Born: 20 January 1905; Died: 25 May 1993
By Paula Vellet
We don’t hold any works by Barbara Ker-Seymer in the Collection, but we do have the book Thoroughly Modern by Sarah Knights in the library.
