<p>From childhood Jonathan Glancey has been fascated by the work John Gay, the German-born photographer whose objective eye ught the spir of London and a untry transn</p>
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JOHN GAY: LONDON PTURED THROUGH A LENS
* john gay photography *
Shortly before he died 1999, the photographer John Gay sent me a pair of prts he'd taken of Le Corbier's pilgrimage chapel at Ronchamp the Hte-Saône. This send shot is both funny and movg: funny bee om some aspects the chapel do remble an outsized wimple; movg bee is also a eply spirual buildg, and the nun Gay's picture nveys a sense of serene spirualy.
Both pictur are black-and-whe – Gay never shot lour – and I'm lookg at them while I wre this my study at photographs mean a lot to me, as om early childhood I'd been ptivated by Gay's work.
JOHN GAY RETROSPECTIVE
Gay was rerdg a way of life that was vanishg almost as fast as he uld prs the shutter releas of his large-format meras. I was given a brand new py of Gay's magil London's Historic Railways Statns (1972) wrten by John Betjeman. Perhaps Gay's perspective was so particular bee he was not origally om this untry.
APRIL : THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF JOHN GAY
Gay was born Hans Gohler, Karlshe, southwt Germany, 1909. Upon arrivg England, he took an adopted name om the 18th-century poser John Gay, most famo for his Beggar's Opera, a wickedly satiril portra of polil and social rptn. Gay worked for Strand and Country Fair magaz, producg fe portras as well as rerdg everyday English untry scen.
29 January 2009: For 60 years, photographer John Gay ptured the reali of daily English life.