American photographer Al Vandenberg (1932-2012) is arguably best known for his art direction of The Beatles’ album cover for Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. But here we look at his street photographs of 1970s London.
Born in 1932 to Dutch parents, Vandenberg was raised in Boston by an English foster family and later went on to study photography in New York alongside Bruce Davidson, Alexey Brodovitch and Richard Avedon. His career began “on the streets of New York going from one depressing neighbourhood to another, passing Diane Arbus and Gary Winogrand collecting images of poverty, urban low-life and ethnic minorities.
In the 1960s, he was a commercial photographer for much of his career. “After about ten years I left that behind me,” he explained. “Neither the spying on poor people for middle-class audiences nor serving the media world gave me the kind of images that I wanted to leave to my children. My camera became more than just a way of making a living. Making a living seemed less important than living itself…
“Everything I made money on was fucking up the world. I philosophised myself out of the business quick. All these people tell you they want to use you, and bloody hell they do. I was tired of making a living. I wanted to live instead.”
In 1974, he settled in London to photograph intimate portraits without a commercial tone, noting:
“I believe that applying the same technical expertise and the same ‘eye’ to photographing people who are happy results in the kind of images that show that, in spite of all our difficulties, the world is also a happy place.”
His 1970s street style work has been compiled in On a Good Day, published by Stanley/Barker.
“It’s a great time being young, with your whole life ahead of you. It’s a time for love, hope, dreaming, great creativity. It’s a time away from home, breaking free from parents, home, creating freedom. You feel you can be anything and do anything. The future looks very positive.”
– Al Vandenberg
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