Henry Moore

Sculptor Henry Moore seems to be in academic dress, possibly having received an honorary degree, or attending a similarly distinguished event. Moore’s expression is appropriately solemn and his hand is unnaturally placed on his shoulder. Both Moore and the photographer, John Hedgecoe, appreciated hands for their expressive qualities. In their images together, they often drew attention to the hands to reinforce the view that Moore’s works were made directly from the sculptor’s own hands. Divorced from the working context, the hand here seems to solely serve an expressive purpose.

Moore and Hedgecoe had been friends since their first meeting in 1956. In total, Hedgecoe took around 6,000 photographs of Moore. [1] In some of his photography manuals Hedgecoe used his images of the sculptor as an example of how to take a prolonged portrait of a single subject. [2] As Hedgecoe explained, with photography ‘you capture forever a frozen instant of time. But how much more meaningful those images can be is made plain when you see a progression of pictures of the same person taken over a long period of time.’ [3]

His photographs of Moore formed the basis of four books, which incorporated Hedgecoe’s photographs alongside Moore’s words. Although he produced around 30 photography manuals, these were Hedgecoe’s only books on a single subject.

Tania Moore, January 2021

[1] As estimated by Charlotte Bullions and Emily Unthank at the Henry Moore Foundation, 2020.

[2] John Hedgecoe, Photographing People (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), p.56.

[3] Ibid.