Humphrey John Spender was a painter, photographer and designer. He studied architecture initially but set up a photographic studio on the Strand soon after qualifying. Through his photographs Spender became a keen observer of British society, working first for the Daily Mirror and then later for the Mass Observation movement, an independent body which aimed to capture the reality of daily life in Britain. In 1938 he joined the newly-founded Picture Post magazine, for whom he worked into the 1950s. Humphrey was conscripted as an official war photographer from 1941, and following the war returned to painting from the 1950s. He became a successful textile designer, teaching in the Royal College of Art textile department for 20 years, ...