Saleroom News
Auction of Joseph McKenzie original photographs
Cheffins, working closely with the Joseph McKenzie Archive, are offering several original photographers in their November Fine Art sale.
Joseph McKenzie was born in London in 1929, and educated in Hoxton and later during the war at Cranborne, Dorset. Following conscription and regular service in the RAF as a photographer, he studied photography at The London College of Printing. In 1954, he was invited to teach at St. Martin’s School of Art, London before going on to become a lecturer in photography at The Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, a post from which he prematurely retired in 1986.
Throughout his career, he has won International recognition, including being elected an Associate of The Royal Photographic Society in 1954, a position he retained until he retired in 1973. In 1969, he was awarded third prize in The Nikon International Photographic Contest, and as further tribute to the regard in which he was held, he was commissioned to photograph HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and Lord Mountbatten.
McKenzie’s style and constant striving for quality bears close association to the American school of photography, in particular the work of Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand. Like them, McKenzie was pioneering in his field; he was one of the first photographers to put on a purely photographic exhibition in the UK, and later became one of the first to establish a private gallery in Scotland.
In 1965, he embarked on a series of major exhibitions with ‘Glasgow Gorbals Children’ which were shown across Scotland, followed by ‘Dundee – A City in Transition’ in the following year, a series made to commemorate the opening of The Tay Road Bridge. He later exhibited ‘Dunfermline and its People’ before ‘Caledonian Images’ was toured throughout Scotland by The Scottish Arts Council in 1969, however it was the following year that proved decisive for McKenzie when he displayed ‘Hibernian Images’. This controversial study provoked a great deal of criticism and an attempt to censor his catalogue statement finally led to his withdrawal from public exhibitions of his works.
He has retained this reclusive lifestyle ever since and as such, his works are very rarely seen, and rarer still are opportunities to acquire them. However in August 1987, The Third Eye Centre hosted a retrospective exhibition of his work entitled ‘Pages of Experience; photographs 1947-1987’ and a companion book was published, some of those images included are offered here.
He retains his own private archive in Scotland, many of which are truly one-offs, as he very rarely produced more than perhaps six prints, and often restricted printing to just a single image. His works are represented in a small number of public and private collections, including The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The National Portrait Gallery of Scotland, The Carnegie Dunfermline Trust and The Scottish Arts Council.
Cheffins are delighted to establish this close association with the Joseph McKenzie Archive, and are pleased to offer these original photographs, in our November Fine Art Sale.