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Been out and about in north or west London and noticed some shiny blue plaques? Residents of (or visitors to) Brixton and Fulham may well have seen that plaques have been installed commemorating two pioneering photographers, Christina Broom and John Thomson.
Christina Broom was the UK’s first female press photographer, while Thomson was an early photojournalist and one of the first British travel photographers to travel to the Far East. Thomson’s plaque is affixed to his Brixton home on 15 Effra Road, Brixton, while Broom’s is on 92 Munster Road in Fulham.
Christina Broom (1862-1939) started taking photographs at 40 years old, in part due to her husband suffering a cricket injury that meant he could no longer work. Needing to support her family, she picked up photography – and went on to be the first female press photographer in Britain, active from 1903 to her death in 1939. Broom notably covered the suffragette movement, capturing the movement’s breadth and day-to-day activities.
John Thomson’s (1937-1981) series Illustrations of China and its People (1873–4) was the first documentation of Chinese people and landscapes for a Western audience. He travelled to Singapore and Hong Kong before moving to the Brixton address where his plaque now stands. He published Still Life in London (1877–8), a collection showing the lives of the working class poor in London. It’s thought to be the first social photography in Britain.
Rebecca Preston, English Heritage Historian, says ‘These two very different photographers were pioneers in their own right, both working at the forefront of photography at a time when it was not the accessible medium that it is now’.
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