2021 Lucie Awards Honoree: DAVID HURN / Achievement In Documentary

“Life, as it unfolds in front of the camera, is full of so much complexity, wonder, and surprise that I find it unnecessary to create new realities. There is more pleasure, for me, in things as-they-are” – David Hurn

Born in the UK, but of Welsh descent, David Hurn is a self-taught photographer who began his career in 1955 having rejected a potential life in the army. Whilst a freelance photographer, he gained his early reputation with his reportage of the 1956 Hungarian revolution.

Hurn eventually turned away from coverage of current affairs preferring to take a more personal approach to photography. He returned to live in Wales in 1970 vowing to spend 30% of his photographic time documenting his home country, Wales, “paid or probably unpaid”.

He had become an associate member of Magnum in 1965 and a full member in 1967.

In 1973, he set up the famous School of Documentary Photography in Newport, Wales. He resigned in 1989.

In 1997 he collaborated on a very successful textbook with Professor Bill Jay. On Being a Photographer. Publication by Lenswork.

His first book from Wales was, Land of My Father, which truly reflects Hurn’s style and creative impetus. It is a self-initiated project attempting to discover what is meant by the phrase ‘my culture’. It consists of observations on the remarkable changes taking place in Wales from 1970 until the books publication by Thames and Hudson in 2000.

Among later books are two published by Reel Art Press, The 60’s Photographed by David Hurn, and Arizona Trips, the latter mainly photographed in 1979/80 whilst fulfilling a year long UK/US Bicentennial Fellowship to photograph in America.

David Hurn has a longstanding international reputation as one of Britain’s most influential reportage/documentary photographers. It has been said “he deals with the significance of the mundane”

His prints are acquired by many leading collectors and museums.

In 2016, David Hurn was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.

He continues to live in, and work from, his home in Tintern, Wales.