Life Bureau de Londres, 1944 Chambre noire de Life Épreuve argentique personnelle d'époque, 94x120 mm Life Magazine Staff, London Bureau, England 1944 Printed in Life's London Office Darkroom Vintage gelatin silver print, 94x120 mm. Members of the London Life staff celebrated Bob Capa's return from the Italian front in 1944. The photo must have been taken by Elizabeth Crockett Reeve, whose husband Alan Reeve poses next to Capa. ?Crocky' as we called her was the mainstay of the London staff. After the war, she briefly ran Magnum's Paris office. When Alan decided to move to Stockholm she had to decide: Alan or Magnum? Capa asked me to call her from NY to plead for Magnum. She went to Stockholm. Left to right: MY SECRETARY, ELEANOR RAGSDALE, ROBERT MULLER CYNTHIA LEDSHAM, HANS WILD JOHN MORRIS ROBERT CAPA ALAN REEVE LONDON In October, 1943, Life sent me to London, to prepare for coverage of the invasion of Western Europe. We knew it would come some day, but when and where was Top Secret. The London office had already survived the Blitz of 1940. Morale was high. When Robert Capa came from the Italian front to join us, we celebrated (right). I held a flash so that my wonderful deputy Elizabeth "Crocky" Reeve could take a picture that featured her husband Alan, next to Capa. London, in fact most of the United Kingdom, was still blacked out every night. German air raids continued, in the "Little Blitz" of 1944, but the real menace would come later, with rocket attacks later that year. At first the rockets were propelled by small engines. We called them V-1s, or "buzz bombs." One could watch them overhead, praying that they would land somewhere else. The RAF soon learned to shoot them down, by diving on them from above. Then the Germans started firing real rockets, or V-2s, for which there was no defense. One day, sitting in my office with staff photographer George Rodger I heard an explosion in the distance. I said, "George, go have a look." He came back with a remarkable picture. I had first gone to London as a student in the summer of 1935, arriving in East London by freighter from New Orleans. Nineteen days at sea, but it cost only $37.50. In October, 1943 I arrived by freighter from St. John, New Brunswick, with a cargo of bacon and powdered eggs and nine Canadian Red Cross girls. Our young Norwegian captain detoured almost to the Azores to avoid submarine attack, before heading North to Liverpool. After taking the train to blacked out London I checked into the Savoy for a few days. Thus I was privileged to join one of the most elite press corps in history. On my first day at work I had lunch at the elegant White Tower restaurant with Lee Miller of Vogue. She was then living with Life photographer Dave Scherman in the house of Roland Penrose whom she eventually married, becoming Lady Penrose. I found lodging on Upper Wimpole Street with Life photographer Frank Scherschel. Frank invited me for a weekend; I stayed fourteen months.
Life Bureau de Londres, 1944 Chambre noire de Life Épreuve argentique personnelle d'époque, 94x120 mm Life Magazine Staff, London Bureau, England 1944 Printed in Life's London Office Darkroom Vintage gelatin silver print, 94x120 mm. Members of the London Life staff celebrated Bob Capa's return from the Italian front in 1944. The photo must have been taken by Elizabeth Crockett Reeve, whose husband Alan Reeve poses next to Capa. ?Crocky' as we called her was the mainstay of the London staff. After the war, she briefly ran Magnum's Paris office. When Alan decided to move to Stockholm she had to decide: Alan or Magnum? Capa asked me to call her from NY to plead for Magnum. She went to Stockholm. Left to right: MY SECRETARY, ELEANOR RAGSDALE, ROBERT MULLER CYNTHIA LEDSHAM, HANS WILD JOHN MORRIS ROBERT CAPA ALAN REEVE LONDON In October, 1943, Life sent me to London, to prepare for coverage of the invasion of Western Europe. We knew it would come some day, but when and where was Top Secret. The London office had already survived the Blitz of 1940. Morale was high. When Robert Capa came from the Italian front to join us, we celebrated (right). I held a flash so that my wonderful deputy Elizabeth "Crocky" Reeve could take a picture that featured her husband Alan, next to Capa. London, in fact most of the United Kingdom, was still blacked out every night. German air raids continued, in the "Little Blitz" of 1944, but the real menace would come later, with rocket attacks later that year. At first the rockets were propelled by small engines. We called them V-1s, or "buzz bombs." One could watch them overhead, praying that they would land somewhere else. The RAF soon learned to shoot them down, by diving on them from above. Then the Germans started firing real rockets, or V-2s, for which there was no defense. One day, sitting in my office with staff photographer George Rodger I heard an explosion in the distance. I said, "George, go have a look." He came back with a remarkable picture. I had first gone to London as a student in the summer of 1935, arriving in East London by freighter from New Orleans. Nineteen days at sea, but it cost only $37.50. In October, 1943 I arrived by freighter from St. John, New Brunswick, with a cargo of bacon and powdered eggs and nine Canadian Red Cross girls. Our young Norwegian captain detoured almost to the Azores to avoid submarine attack, before heading North to Liverpool. After taking the train to blacked out London I checked into the Savoy for a few days. Thus I was privileged to join one of the most elite press corps in history. On my first day at work I had lunch at the elegant White Tower restaurant with Lee Miller of Vogue. She was then living with Life photographer Dave Scherman in the house of Roland Penrose whom she eventually married, becoming Lady Penrose. I found lodging on Upper Wimpole Street with Life photographer Frank Scherschel. Frank invited me for a weekend; I stayed fourteen months.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
