An exploration of the life and career of Yevonde, the pioneering London photographer who spearheaded the use of colour photography in the 1930s.

Yevonde: Life and Colour tells the story of a woman who gained freedom through photography – as she experimented with her medium and blazed a new trail for portrait photographers. The exhibition features portraits and still-life works produced by Yevonde over a colourful sixty-year career, and draws on the archive of her work acquired by the Gallery in 2021, as well as extensive new research by our teams.

Yevonde was a vivacious and adaptable photographer operating her London studio throughout most of the twentieth century.A suffragette at the height of the cause and lifelong supporter of women’s rights Yevonde took up photography in 1914 as a route to independence. In 1921 she declared ‘portrait photography without women would be a sorry business’. As a member of the Women’s Provisional Club for professional women she spoke out ‘in no phase of modern life has women’s influence proved so stimulating as in photography.’ In the interwar years of rapid change and technological advances Yevonde became a pioneer working with the Vivex colour process. Her commitment to colour photography and imaginative technique resulted in a unique vision still fresh today.

Yevonde: Life and Colour is supported by The CHANEL Culture Fund, and builds on Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture, a major partnership project that aims to enhance the representation of women in the Gallery’s Collection.

More information on the event can be found here.