Manchester’s John Rylands Library has recently acquired the Dorothy Bohm collection
Born in 1924, Dorothy Bohm was a German-born British photographer known for her portraiture and street photography. Over the course of her career, more than twenty books of her work were published. Her photographs have been widely exhibited and are held in major public and private collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate, and the Musée Carnavalet in Paris. She is widely regarded as one of the doyennes of British photography.
Bohm studied photography at the Manchester Municipal College of Technology, where she received a diploma, and also gained a photography certificate from City and Guilds. In 1946, she established her own portrait studio on Market Steet Manchester, Studio Alexander, working under the nom de guerre Dorothy Alexander.
Bohm transitioned from studio portraiture to street photography, building an international career. Her first solo exhibition was held in 1969 at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, and in 1970 she published her first book, A World Observed.
The following year, she played a key role in founding The Photographers’ Gallery in London, where she served as Associate Director for fifteen years, mentoring a new generation of photographers.
In recognition of her contributions to the field, Bohm was made an Honorary Fellow of the UK’s Royal Photographic Society in 2009.
She remained deeply involved in photography until her passing in 2023. This collection highlights the formative period Bohm spent in Manchester, developing her professional practice, and commemorates the 2010 exhibition of her work at Manchester Art Gallery.
The collection includes almost a 100 black and white portrait photographs taken at Studio Alexander
Ephemera relating to Studio Alexanderand Dorothy Bohm’s life in Manchester in the 1940s and 11 colour photographs taken in Manchester between 2008 and 2010 as well as Ephemera relating to the retrospective exhibition of Dorothy’s work at Manchester Art Gallery in 2010 and Original negatives of both bodies of work
The collection is of interest to researchers across many disciplines, including photography, the history of photography, the history of art; and to those interested in visual culture and sociology.
All images © Estate of Dorothy Bohm
