Cornel Lucas Collection on Display at the Old Cinema

BAFTA award winning photographer took pictures of the Hollywood greats

Diana Dors in Venice. Picture: © Cornel Lucas Collection

August 15, 2023

A display of the work of Cornel Lucas is taking place in Chiswick this month at the Old Cinema.

Running until 31 August, there will be a chance to see for free an exhibition of the work of the only photographer to have ever been awarded a BAFTA for his "outstanding contribution to the British Film Industry".

He took photos of nearly every major Hollywood star filming in England during the fifties and sixties creating portraits that he perfected by hand.

Born in Highbury in 1920, he enjoyed a career at the forefront of photography for over 70 years. His talent was first nurtured by his mother, who bought him a Kodak Box Brownie camera for his 11th birthday and his six sisters provided him with a team of in-house models. One of the family’s bathrooms was converted into a darkroom.

He was introduced to the film industry at 15 by his brother who worked in a film processing laboratory. He earnings from being a trainee allowed him to study photography part-time at Westminster University.

The skills he acquired saw him being posted to the RAF school of photography in Farnborough, Hampshire at the start of the war where he was engaged in top-secret aerial reconnaissance assignments.

Following the Allied victory, he went to work at Denham Film Studios. Here he became well known for his portraiture. When international superstars came to work on British productions, they were invariably photographed by Lucas to create their publicity stills.

During the 1940s and 1950s Lucas soon became the UK’s leading movie star photographer, capturing the great and the good of both the UK and US film industries. During the making of 'No Highway' (1951), his skill and expertise as a portrait photographer led to a special session with Marlene Dietrich. The success of these images, and the many others, prompted the Rank Organisation to provide him with a specially equipped studio at Pinewood to photograph the fifty plus major film stars they had under contract.

Marlene Dietrich (left) and Brigitte Bardot (right). Picture: © Cornel Lucas Collection

From here Lucas produced the exceptional images that have, in the words of Lord Puttnam, "become the photographic icons by which we come to know and remember the stars" of this golden age of cinema. During these years Lucas worked on some of the most memorable films of our time, building up a strong association with Columbia and Universal Studios.

In 1959 Lucas left Pinewood and moved into the freelance world, opening his own studio in Chelsea's Flood Street where he made a second career embracing other aspects of photography such as advertising and fashion, whilst continuing as a portraitist.

Gregory Peck and David Niven. Picture: © Cornel Lucas Collection

In 1998 Lucas became the only photographer ever to be awarded a BAFTA for his outstanding contribution to the British Film industry. In 2005 after international exhibitions in Brazil, Holland and America, a limited-edition publication Shooting Stars was produced to coincide with a lifetime retrospective held at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Claudia Cardinale. Picture: © Cornel Lucas Collection

Cornel Lucas' work can be seen on permanent display at several venues across London including the Photographers Gallery, the Victoria & Albert Museum and BAFTA. To commemorate his life and work, two short films and a limited edition of British postage stamps have also been produced.

His son Linus said, “As a family archive, our principal aim has always been to keep my father’s photographic legacy alive and to share his wonderful images with as many people as possible. We want to celebrate this master craftsman for the amazing contribution he made to the photographic and film industries over his career that spanned 70 years.

“I believe my father as a portraitist had a unique and technically brilliant photographic style. His ability to create such dramatic imagery, with characteristic low-key, high-contrast lighting, mixing both light and shade whilst always maintaining a beautiful tonal range, demonstrates an altogether different way of working than that we so often see today. His style shows such a sensitivity yet artistic flair, that I believe, will always be relevant and of interest to any photography enthusiast. Iconic images like these never really go out of fashion and will forever remain timeless. He was an artist that painted with light.”

Prints of his vintage work will be on sale during the exhibition at the Old Cinema at 160 Chiswick High Road and the pictures can also be viewed on the Cornel Lucas web site.