Tribute to ‘pioneering’ woman photographer Christina Broom at Museum of London

Broom is thought to have been the UK's first female press photographer

Hot off the press: an example of Christina Broom's work (Picture: Christina Broom/Museum of London)

Christina Broom/Museum of London

18 June 2015

The life and work of a pioneering female news photographer is honoured in a new exhibition opening this week.

Christina Broom, who died aged 75 in 1939, captured images of First World War soldiers, above, suffragettes and the royal family in a career spanning three and a half decades.

Now hundreds of them are going on show in an exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands. Curator Anna Sparham said: “It’s the first time that her story has been brought to the fore. She’s someone whose work has really been fairly under-appreciated but she is widely agreed to have been a pioneering female press photographer in the UK.”

Broom, who lived for many years in Chelsea, took up a camera in 1903 at the age of 40 after her husband, Albert, was injured in a cricket accident and she was forced to become the family breadwinner.

Assisted by her daughter Winnie, she at first sold thousands of her images of contemporary events as postcards from a stall at the gates of the Royal Mews before newspapers and magazines such as the London Illustrated News, Daily Sketch and Tatler began to publish them too.

Mrs Sparham said she thought it was because Broom was essentially a commercial photographer that the importance of her work had been long overlooked. But she won the trust and respect of both the royals and military ensuring great access and she also had an eye for popular events such as the Oxford and Cambridge boat race.

Christina Broom runs from tomorrow until November 1 — admission is free and there is an accompanying book by Philip Wilson.