David Hurn
Non-fiction photographer
Born in England, but of Welsh descent, Hurn started taking photographs in 1955 and came to notice with his reportage of the 1956 Hungarian revolution.
A contemporary of 1960s photographic greats, including Josef Koudela, Philip Jones Griffiths, Don McCullin and Ian Berry, Hurn became a full member of the iconic Magnum Photos agency in 1967.
In 1972, Hurn moved to Wales, partly to allow him to spend time on personal work, and in 1973, set up the School of Documentary Photography in Newport.
While Hurn has travelled extensively, including spells working in the US, he is proud to be the de facto village photographer where he lives in south Wales.
www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/david-hurn/
Instagram: @davidhurnphoto
With a photographic archive spanning six decades, it’s not surprising that David Hurn has been busy producing a book to showcase his life’s work. On sale now, the 142-page volume, titled David Hurn: Photographs 1955 – 2020, contains some of the photographer’s key images, as well as some lesser-known ones.
Shot in black and white, Hurn’s photos, which he describes as ‘non-fiction’, document a wide range of subjects and capture events ‘as they are’ without the need for new realities to be created. While the book includes an essayby Isaac Blease and captions to place the images in context, Digital Camera readers keen to discover some of Hurn’s thoughts about photography should visit his Instagram page, where selected images from his archive are accompanied by incisive commentary.
